C129: End of the Abyss P11
Overall Word count = 1642 on 8/15/2024.
The 50th floor, home to the region just past the Balor and the volcano region. The area is an extension of the ash field that was the Rex's arena before this floor. The group reappears on the 50th floor without any sort of flourish. Axel examines the surroundings as he is slightly surprised but not too much as he finds that a bit distant from his teleportation location, there are a few adventurers.
During one of his walks with Sabrina, he saw a guild notice for any adventurers who would be willing to be forward surveyors for the dungeon. They are the ones passing along the news of what level creatures exist on the floor they are stationed on. Though that didn't stop Axel from flicking over to the dungeon whenever he had free time and curiosity to see the state of the dungeon himself.
That is why he knows that the 50th floor can barely be considered the third floor nowadays. Throughout his ventures, he has witnessed how the monsters adapt to whatever their spawn location is whilst mostly retaining the same level of strength.
In the early to mid 20s, the goblins skin became a brighter hue which helped them blend into the forests of the Large Tree Labyrinth. They at most got the ability to hide better which might be effective against the noobs but against even the weakest of his party which is now Daphne and Cassandra, they can easily handle the monsters.
It's only when they started to fall back onto the 37th floor that things started to get different. The goblins and other monsters of the upper floors had gained proper elemental aspects. The 37th floor was the beginning of the White Palace where Axel and co had fought the Udaeus.
There the monsters had taken on a granite skin tone and could actually use magic or even had much tougher bodies that were resistant to slashing attacks. The magic they used then was earth magic, mostly throwing rocks and such. Not very threatening but it can still injure if hit on the head or weaken muscles due to the force of it.
Such abilities took the first set of surveyors by surprise but after a few small injuries, they were much more prepared for the later floors. Especially the 40th - 49th floors. These floors introduced the monsters with fire elements, a much more scary ability due to the simple fact that fire, no matter how weak, can still hurt someone. And these goblins were chucking entire fireballs at Axel and the surveyors. Axel didn't need to dodge those fireballs as his gluttony would immediately siphon them all before it could possibly hurt him. For the surveyors, it's different as they don't want to waste their potions on such weak monsters. Though they would happily proclaim that they are getting richer due to the simple fact that to allow these elemental mutations, their magic cores have gotten slightly bigger. So fighting goblins is actually rewarding for any skilled level 1.
Axel had originally planned to teleport the group to floor 40 so that they could reacclimate to the dungeon again but floor 40 is no longer part of the dungeon and once he gets started on destroying the dungeon, he feared it would take too long for the group to actually catch up with the dungeon being destroyed. Especially since they don't know what to expect in the later floors of the dungeon.
THey might not be afraid of weak monsters but getting lost is a surefire problem. The surveyors have only made enough progress to catalog up to the 37th floor. The multiple regions within that floor is holding back the various adventurers. Their speed is slow because they are cautious of the dungeon suddenly reclaiming all it's lost land and the weaker level 2s and 3s that make up the surveyors would die under the power of the Spartoi.
"We should get a move on. No point waiting around" Mikoto says as a goblin breaks out through the wall and she cuts it in half. A sharp clink sound was heard as the group realizes that the goblins here have slight metallic skin now which makes them a bit harder to kill again but not too much to this squad.
Axel nods and takes the lead to guide everyone forward, he plans to activate his gluttony full power once they reach the next floor. So, until then, they all trudge along. One of the surveyors, who is Mord Latro, has relatively tall short scruffy hair and a scar near his left eye spotting them but when he notices who it is, he goes the other way.
While they are moving along, Daphne begins to take the frontal position as she is the one in charge of fighting all the monsters. The others give her tips on how to properly siphon the strength of the monsters. Cassandra mostly sticks in the back though she did have to fight one goblin and was surprised by how strong her wooden staff became after she learned to infuse it with her nen.
Soon enough the group finally reaches the 51st floor. "Alright everyone, we are here, time to speed up our pace since we don't want the dungeons' regression to overtake us." Axel informs them and is about to unleashing his gluttony when Bell asks his a question,
"I've been meaning to ask but what is that white thing wrapped around your chest? You didn't have that on when we arrived." Axel sports a smirk on his face as he half turns to show off a bit of his back. He has one of his arms move to the wrapping to move it slightly, this reveals the sleeping face of Sabrina. Everyone, without exception is surprised by this revelation, Daphne can't help but ask.
"Is it safe for you to bring your child into the dungeon? Axel only gives her a raised eyebrow as he clarifies, "Sabrina is the reason the dungeon is dying. She was born with a slightly stronger version of my gluttony. Right now she is using roughly 70% of my full force gluttony. And thus with our powers combined, the dungeon will die" he informs them of the situation
"I understand why she is here, but it's still not safe for her, right?"
"Thats why im keeping her close, her gluttony ensures that she essentially cant be hurt by shockwaves or weaker magic and im here to tank any attacks that might come at her."
"Less talking, more action" Axel exclaims as a sudden gust flows through the dungeon. No, it is not wind. But the very mana of the dungeon flowing towards the father daughter pair.
He begins to jog forward, the others quickly begin to catch up and keep pace with him. They would have made great pace if not for the fact that the 51st floor is an actual labyrinthic maze. This trend of mazes is said to continue until the 58th floor.
If the dungeon was not regressing then the group would have had to fight various monsters such as Deformis Spiders, Cadmus, and Virga. The spiders are naturally giant spider monsters that are red and purple for some reason. Guess it's either strong or very venomous that it doesnt need to hide.
Cadmus [1]are the minotaur version of dragons, aka bipedal draconic monsters with strength rumored to surpass even Udaeus. Naturally, to balance out its overwhelming strength, it has a few weaknesses in the form of lack of scales around its joints which means that the best way to take them down is to cut off its limbs before finishing it off. As for Virga, they are caterpillar like monsters that shoot out highly acidic fluids that are highly sought after if properly collected but that sort of situation is rare since few adventurers had ever reached this point in the first place.
Very quickly, Axel finds that they are lost even though he has been extending mental threads through various hallways to find their way forward. Axel overlaps the elf shade on himself and then uses his esper power to control the shockwave he plans to release.
"Um, Axel, what are you doing?"
"Speeding things up" he states and then punches the wall, the controlled shockwave directing the force akin to a drill as a nice round hole is made in the dungeon wall that then expands as he delivers a few more punches, until he finally gets a proper passageway. He has no fear of the juggernaut and if the Lambda is any indicator, he would need to destroy tons of walls to summon it.
As such, with his mental threads as a guide to where the shortest route for the wall is, he begins to break through one after another. The dungeon fixes the ones behind him like normal but it's incredibly slow due to the intense mana drain from both him and Sabrina. Soon enough the gang reaches the staircase leading down to the 52nd floor.
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Alt Title: Expedition, Killdozer.
[1] I found the standard dragon too boring and repetitive for the dungeon. So to be sure I had accurate monster detail since Cadmus was just referred to as a dragon in the wiki, I looked it up and found that it was the name of a greek hero but also a later alias for Hermes by the Greek island of Samothrace. He had fought a river dragon and then used it's teeth under Athena's guidance to give rise to the spartoi. He had founded the city of Thebes after essentially being kicked out of his home by his father to look for his sister that was 'taken' by Zeus.