In the completely dark cave, our team gathered to start our way to the twentieth floor, after we face the guardian of the twentieth floor, we can finish this expedition.
"Our lineup will change a little now, the sixteenth floor will not be as easy as it was before Vera will no longer lead the team but Dumah will be the team leader in the next floors, Vera will stay in the rear using her bow to cover the team. Then Ulric turns forward with me to protect Dumah's sides and in the end Raziel will stay behind us harassing the enemies with his whip and intercepting any attack against Vera."
"Even if our speed drops a little, we'll keep moving steadily."
With the new formation ready I find myself on the front lines with my sword and hunting knife, hopefully not finding a monster with a high defense. On the next floors level three monsters appeared more often and the variety of monsters increased.
Passing through the portal we came to a slightly different cave; it was strangely small and narrow and the stone walls were smooth and even. If I wasn't inside a dungeon, I would say that I was in a corridor assembled by blocks of stones, but as it was a dungeon, the floor, walls and ceiling are formed by an entire piece and not several smaller blocks.
As we advanced through the tunnel the monsters appeared, they weren't coming out of the walls but simply waiting in the hallway. The first layers were several normal person sized golems most of them were level two monsters, but I could see with my eyes that there were some levels three hidden in mine of the level two golems.
Their bodies were shaped to look like they were wearing a ripe of stone, their weapons were stone, but their tone was darker than their bodies and the weapon type varied from golem to golem. Avia some equipped with bows, spears, swords, hammers and axes was a very diverse mini army of golems with identical face and shape.
If it weren't for my eyes, I would believe they were all identical monsters of the same level.
Dumah advanced against the golems with his shield filled with the shadow and earth elements, when the shield hit the golems with the shadow element and some of the earth element came out of the shield in the form of chains and began to tie the golems close to it.
The immobilized golems were hit by Vera's arrows and each arrow had enough power to destroy most of the golems' heads, but as expected the golems started to accumulate their mana in their cores, but before they could detonate, they were thrown to back and when they exploded, they damaged their allies.
Martin and I didn't have a lot of work to kill the golems damaged by the explosion, to the group's surprise we were able to maintain a high speed while walking this can only happen because of the new cave format it really favors a fight with small numbers.
Most of the corridors were full of golems, but as we went deeper into the maze and each floor, we passed the different monsters joined the golems, shadowy figures, three manticores which was a union between snake lion and scorpion also aviated some arachnids that spit acid and poison in addition to traditional fabric webs.
Arachnids are really annoying to kill because of their big paws their bodies were out of my reach as well as Martin and Dumah who could barely tie them with their black chains. Only Vera could easily kill them with her piercing arrows, and when I say piercing arrows, I mean the shadow element she puts on the arrows which after the arrow pierces the target's body the shadow element pierces inwards as a second attack.
It's really a different elemental art and the first time I see an attack of this type, it has the same principle as explosive attacks, but instead of a big explosion and a small one concentrated to make a focused attack in a single direction to increase damage range arrow piercing.
It's really a creative method that I'll love trying to imitate with my elements, I believe the first step would be to replicate the penetration effect with my wind element and maybe add the fire element to increase damage later, use more elements in the art makes it be more complicated to use, but the power boost that is achieved by two elements is worth it. But unfortunately, I will have to try this art later.
Unlike golems and other humanoid species such as goblins and hobgoblins that leave no parts of their body that can be used to forge magical equipment or tools. We can collect some parts of arachnids and manticores, from arachnids we can extract prey and venom from them when the poison bags are not destroyed during combat.
Plus, the ones that we can take out materials that are worth a lot more, we can take the claws and fangs of a manticore and a part of their hair can be removed like a whole piece of high-quality leather of level three yes how can we take the poison from it like that like arachnids, but manticore venom is worth more gold coins.
These four floors were easier than I expected and I believe my teammates agree with me, because of the new size and shape of the tunnels that make us have to fight fewer enemies at a time. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth floors we got a lot of normal and elite magic gems that are worth a lot and some valuable materials, which will net us a good amount of gold.
With the end of our dungeon expedition approaching, we only have to face the guardian of the twentieth floor. As we pass through the portal, we appear in a circular stone arena, but there is not even an appearance conquered in it, but a huge fox around the arena.
For a few seconds I thought I had passed through the portal of the bloody arena, this dungeon should be caves and tunes not an arena the only constant element and not even a light on this floor, but even without the light I can see the guardian who is a huge manticore.
It was two and a half meters high by a meter and a half wide and two meters long, it was a very large and strong manticore, it was level three in the chief category.
The keeper moved forward without so much as a thrill, but since Dumah was ready to intercept the keeper there was no chance of the manticore hurting anyone on our team.
With the onslaught blocked the Dumah's chains attacked the guardian, but before he could tie the guardian, he was hit by the manticore's sting. Dumah was thrown aside, leaving the guardian free to attack us.
Without a defensive rider to protect us, we had to run around the sides of the arena. Martin caught the guardian's attention as he had a shield to block the guardian while Raziel tried to tie the stinger and Vera and I wounded the guardian.
When he attacked Martin, I cut one of their paws while Vera fired several arrows that pierced the manticore's body the damage didn't seem high but I noticed something weird about the arrows the shadow element in them didn't disappear after the pack they were connecting with each other creating a shadow element network over the guardian's body.
Dodging the Guardian's Spin Martin tries to keep the manticore's attention tied by several chains made by Dumah's shadow and earth elements who have recovered from the manticore's stinger blow, when the chains will tie the guard's paws and tail the shadow element Vera's arrows join them as does Raziel's whip charged with the shadow element.
The manticore can be stronger but with the accumulation of the shadow element of three warriors it is getting tied by chains and ropes of the shadow element. With the addition of Martin's shadow element, the Guardian's body was lashed all over.
The guardian's ability to move is greatly impaired, now I understand why shadow element fighters can be very irritating in a dark environment their shadow element is not only strengthened but they can unite the element of different fighters on the same target.
Over time the restrictions on the guardian's body increased and became stronger, as the number of arrows embedded in his body increased, as I couldn't help them in arresting the guardian, I've been attacking the points without moorings with my weapons, I managed to make several deep cuts on it but the damage done by min is not fatal I can only make it bleed to drain the guardian's vitality.
It didn't take long for the manticore to be incapacitated and then die from blood loss, it was a simpler long fight but it wasn't easy more than half the elemental energy was spent by Vera, Martin and Dumah already Raziel is completely empty he will need a few hours to recover a good part of its shadow element.
I believe that neither one of them will want to continue exploring the dungeon after facing a level three monster of the boss category, no one expected one of them to appear on the twentieth floor if it was the twenty-fifth floor the chance of one of them appearing and small.