Ben & Mira go deeper into the dungeon with Mira using her Satan Soul form. There's no engraving anymore after they get around 50 meters deep into the dungeon. Now, they can see the Etheriouses that are looming inside the dungeon.
"What a merry welcome. Let's see, there are 80-90 of them just at the entrance. Do you want to take them, Mira?" asks Ben while counting the Etheriouses' number roughly.
"Alright, I haven't done anything in this dungeon, so I feel stiff. I need to stretch a little," says Mira before she charges forward.
The Etheriouses also charge toward Mira and the battle starts. Mira is using her Satan Claws to rip the Etheriouses' bodies. There's a black aura on her claws because her Satan Soul form can use Darkness Magic and she coats her arm with it to increase her attack power.
These Etheriouses are very low-leveled and super weak. Their bodies get ripped easily by Mira's claws like butter. Well, it's also because Mira has become much stronger so these Etheriouses seem very weak even though each one of them can kill a squad of knights.
Mira is currently the 3rd strongest Mage in Fairy Tail after Ben & Gildarts. She has surpassed Makarov but is still weaker than Gildarts. However, with her current progress, Mira will catch up to Gildarts in a few years, and Ben will make sure she catches up in less than 3 years.
Back to the fight, Mira is doing well against the Etheriouses. She only uses her close combat skills because these weak things are good punching bags. Just like Ben, she often treats her battles as training, and she does it now.
But even if Mira can defeat the Etheriouses easily, their number is just too high. Many of them just move past her and rush to Ben behind her. Of course, none of them have any chance, and they just get massacred.
Ben also only uses his close combat skills, but unlike Mira, he doesn't even use his magic to fight. The only magic that he uses now is the light that illuminates the cave. To fight these Etheriouses, he uses his best melee weapon, his Pendragon sword.
He swings his sword with fast movements while dodging the Etheriouses' attacks. Ben doesn't block or parry, he keeps moving his body to dodge their attacks while attacking them with his fast swordsmanship. He is training & testing his agility & flexibility by dodging their attacks.
Blood spilled on Ben's & Mira's bodies but they ignore it. They just keep fighting and killing the Etheriouses that keep coming to them from deep inside the dungeon. It's like there's no end to these things, they just keep coming.
They finally stop coming after 3 hours and AI Chip has counted that 942 Etheriouses have attacked Ben & Mira. That is a terrifying number that can destroy some towns if these things aren't trapped here.
But this number is a good thing for Ben & Mira because the more demons here, the stronger they will get. As a Devil Slayer, slaying demons will increase Ben's Devil Slayer Magic power. Mira's Satan Soul also get stronger as she absorbed the dead demons' soul power without taking over their bodies.
"Strange, there are too many of them. From my experience, one Book of Zeref can only generate one demon. But there are just too many of them," says Ben.
"Maybe there's a library here," says Mira.
"No, I don't think that's the case. I don't think Zeref would put so many books in one place. And I don't think he was bored enough to make these many weak Etheriouses. They were far too weak compared to the ones we've ever encountered that it's suspicious," says Ben.
"But there's nothing we can do about it. The only way to find the answer is by clearing this quest," says Mira.
"Yeah, right," says Ben while nodding.
Ben then burns all the Etherious corpses into ashes using his Sun Devil Slayer Magic. When he does that, he can feel his Sun Devil Slayer Magic gets strengthened even more. It's like the remaining magic power inside the dead demons is entering his body.
"Oh, this is good. My magic is sucking their magic power and turning it into mine. I guess this is why Acnologia can get that strong. He absorbed the magic of the Dragons that he killed. And Dragons have massive magic power, so he gets a lot of it," says Ben while keeps burning the corpses.
He doesn't get the full amount of magic power of these dead demons, he only gets some portions. But it's still a nice amount because there are a lot of dead demons here, even though they're weak. Having more magic power is always great and having his Devil Slayer Magic strengthened is even better.
Ben & Mira move forward and soon, the dungeon is branching. There are 3 paths in front of them and they don't know which one is the correct path. So Ben decides to explore all of them by creating 7 clones.
3 of the clones enter the left path, 4 enter the middle, while he & Mira enter the right path. He instructs his clones to split again if their paths branched again. They also need to keep communicating with him and report their finding.
Ben & Mira walk forward and expect some Etheriouses to attack again, but no one comes. Instead, they encounter traps that keep getting activated as they walk forward. The traps are just typical old traps like arrows, crushing walls, poison gas, spikes, etc.
They destroyed all these old-style traps easily and Ben even takes his time analyzing them. These traps are activated at high speed, but Ben is much faster. His senses have increased to a very high level and his reflex is top-notch.
"This is fun at first, but it's getting very annoying now. We've walked for half an hour and there's nothing but traps," says Ben after getting through a lot of traps.
Ben is getting bored of the traps, so he just used his gravity element to the walls around him. All the traps that get activated can't even come out because his gravity suppresses them and even deformed the wall.
"What's the point of using non-magical traps like these? They are demons for f**k sake. Set up curses instead of traps would you?" complaints Ben in frustration.
"But these traps are enough to tire up and kill average S-Class Mages, you know. There are just too many of them that even S-Classes will find them difficult and annoying. Eventually, they'll get tired and after they get injured by a trap, they'll keep getting injured," says Mira.
"I know, but these traps are too uncreative," says Ben.
Right after he said that the traps changed into magic traps. The first magic trap is thorny vines that come out of the walls & floor. They try to catch Ben & Mira but then they get crushed by the gravity.
The vines still try to struggle though, so Ben burns them after analyzing them for a bit. His mood changes into a better one because now he can see other variations of the traps. He is like a kid exploring a place full of mystery.
The situations on the paths that his clones take are similar. Traps are set everywhere but some Etheriouses also appear once in a while on the other paths. The clones have split again because their paths have branched a few times, unlike Ben's path.
The 2nd magic trap that Ben & Mira find is a wind blade area. Multiple wind blades appear out of the wall and fly everywhere. But just like before, they all break when they get in contact with Ben's gravity magic.
"Hmm, there's no enchantment or anything on the walls. So these traps must be the power of an individual," says Ben.
Their path finally branches after they get through 8 magic traps. They go to the right branch and encounter a lot of Etheriouses there. Ben & Mira slaughter them again but when they are in the middle of fighting, one of Ben's clones gets destroyed.
Ben is surprised, but then he grins, "Found it."
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