This time, Rafe was more alert than before. The sound of wooden branches being stepped on by Rafe could be heard very clearly, at the same time dozens of poisonous spears appeared from behind the dungeon wall. Rafe deftly dodged all the attacks aimed at him.
There was a crashing sound as dozens of spears hit the ground from two different sides of the wall. Rafe resumed his steps, this time a rope immediately caught his feet as he hit the ground. Rafe's body swung to the roof of the dungeon, Rafe quickly slashed the rope with the lightning knife in his hand.
There seemed to be seven poisonous knives already installed on the roof of the dungeon, if he didn't cut the rope, his body would be stabbed by all seven knives. Rafe took another step, this time hearing a large rock move from the front of the road they were on.
"Look out Rafe!" shouted Hayato.
"I heard it too," Rafe said as he clenched his right hand.
A flash of lightning began to envelop Rafe's right hand. A large boulder seemed to be rapidly rolling toward Rafe, and poisonous needles seemed to be stuck so tightly around the boulder. Rafe slapped his right hand in the air and a thin bolt of lightning shot toward the boulder.
The bolt penetrated the incoming rock and spread like roots inside the boulder. Soon the rock shattered and scattered in different directions. Rafe caught all the poisonous needles that were thrown at him and threw them back to the ground.
"Whoever did this must have wanted to kill all the adventurers who passed this way," Rafe said as he continued on his way.
"I don't understand what they're doing," Hayato said.
"They must be people who enjoy torturing others, they're just vile criminals who enjoy the screams of pain from their victims. They do all this just for their own pleasure, people like them deserve to be killed," Rafe grumbled.
"I've also heard rumors that there's a group of adventurers who like to make trouble in the dungeon," Sonia said.
"Make trouble?" asked Hayato.
"Yes. They're very fond of harming adventurers who explore the dungeon, sometimes they like to steal other people's quest results in the dungeon and sell them to merchants themselves. They are very happy when they hear that the other party has failed to complete their quests," Sonia explained.
"Tch. Apparently there are more psychopaths in this world compared to the real world," Hayato thought.
Rafe stepped on another trap while swinging his steps, this time two large axes shot out of two dungeon walls and swung towards his body. But Rafe stayed where he was, and a loud crash was heard as the two sharp axes hit the dungeon wall.
Meanwhile, Rafe's figure had disappeared from sight. Rafe is now standing right next to the poisonous needle he threw earlier, Sonia was very surprised to see Rafe's figure standing in front of her.
"I didn't feel him move, he seemed to be in front of me all of a sudden," Sonia thought with a shocked look on her face.
"Don't make others worry, stupid!" a worried looking Hayato snapped.
"Hehehe... I have no choice anyway, I won't be able to avoid those two axes," Rafe said as he rushed back to the front.
"You idiot, you probably stepped on the trap on purpose to show off your skills," Hayato grumbled.
"You think I'm crazy, huh? I didn't know there was a trap! Besides, it's better than having another victim besides us," Rafe snapped.
"Tch. You're right," Hayato grumbled.
"What a freak," Rafe grumbled as he continued on his way.
Soon Rafe saw a rope crossing the ground, Rafe deliberately stepped on it while keeping an eye on the surroundings. This time, hundreds of poisonous needles shot out from the front, and Rafe quickly struck out with his lightning-covered right hand.
Bright bolts of lightning shot out of Rafe's hand, the lightning forming roots that spread through the air. Successive clattering sounds could be heard as the lightning from Rafe's hand struck all the poisonous needles until they bounced off the dungeon wall. Rafe picked up the poisonous needles and carried them away.
"No wonder there are no monsters all the way here, they must have realized that there are a lot of traps here so they didn't enter," Hayato thought while looking at Rafe.
The three of them continued their journey until they left the shortcut, now they reached the ninth floor of the dungeon. There seemed to be many dead monsters at the entrance of the shortcut. Most of their bodies had turned blue from the poison.
"Looks like they were trapped at the entrance as well," Rafe said as he looked at the area on the ninth floor where they arrived.
Several monsters seemed to be wandering around with their respective groups. Rafe, Hayato and Sonia continued on their way. The monsters immediately turned around when they noticed the presence of the three of them. In a short time, the monsters moved towards them.
Rafe didn't use his magic to save mana this time, he used the poisonous needles he had collected on the shortcut. One by one, Rafe threw the poisoned needles at the weak points of the approaching monsters.
One by one, the monsters began to collapse to the ground, their bodies seemingly turning blue from the rapidly spreading poison. Hayato himself faced the approaching monsters with his sword.
"Let me go ahead this time, there won't be too many monsters for you to deal with," Sonia suggested when she noticed Rafe gathering his mana again.
"No need," Rafe and Hayato replied simultaneously.
"I can still fight monsters without using my mana," Rafe continued.
"A main character like me won't die stupidly just because I'm fighting weak monsters like them," said Hayato as he posed and slashed his sword at the approaching goblins.
"Alright then," Sonia said.
The three of them continued on their way until they finally reached the dungeon passage leading to the tenth floor, where the Electro Skullix monster was located. They took a short break to recover their energy and mana.
"Do we have to sleep here for a while?" asked Rafe, looking at Hayato and Sonia.
"No need, I've recovered my energy anyway," Hayato replied as he stood up.
"I didn't do anything earlier, so don't worry about me," Sonia replied.
"Alright. Let's continue our journey," Rafe said as he stood up happily.
"Yes," Hayato and Sonia replied at the same time.
"I'm curious about the monster that lives on the tenth floor ahead of us," Rafe said as he started walking.
"Do I have to read the data as it is written in the archives?" asked Hayato.
"No need. I want to see for myself," Rafe replied.
"The monsters on the tenth floor are mostly equivalent to E and D level adventurers, but there are four monsters equivalent to B level adventurers when Electro Skullix has spawned. As for Electro Skullix's own monsters - ouch!" Hayato screeched before finishing his explanation, as Rafe immediately kicked his body.
"I told you, I don't need to know!" snapped Rafe.
"You don't have to kick me either!" grumbled Hayato as he stood up and grabbed his waist.
"What a freak," Rafe grumbled as he continued on his way.
Rafe, Hayato and Sonia had already reached the tenth floor. Even from there, Rafe could feel the huge and dark overflow of mana from the tenth floor. It seemed that the atmosphere there was very dark, and the sound of monster footsteps could be heard in several places on the tenth floor.
Unlike the other floors, the tenth floor had no small areas and no other paths. There were no shortcuts to get through the tenth floor, all the shortcuts from the previous floors were connected to it. There was only one way to leave the tenth floor and go to the eleventh floor.
The area of the tenth floor was ten times the area of Elexia Academy's drill ground. Towering, steep rocks were all over the tenth floor area, and in the middle of the tenth floor, there seemed to be a hill with a flat top.
At the top of the hill, a chair formed by an array of skulls appeared, and a huge skeletal monster with black armor and two swords on its back seemed to be sitting on the chair. Surrounding the hill were four giant skeleton monsters with bone swords in their hands.
Besides the four giant skeleton monsters, there were hundreds of other types of monsters, goblins, undead goblins, skeletons, and other types of rank E or D monsters. Hayato seemed to swallow his saliva when he saw that there were dozens of human skulls scattered around the passage they were traveling through.
"Unbelievable, so this is the tenth floor of the dungeon?" muttered Sonia, who looked shocked at the number of monsters there.
"The numbers seem overwhelming since the tenth floor is just one big room, no wonder so many adventurers died here," Hayato said.
"I'll go face those Electro Skullix monsters alone, Sonia, you take care of Hayato so he doesn't die from the monsters," Rafe said as he came forward to leave the corridor area connecting the ninth and tenth floors.
"Hey! You underestimate a main character like me, huh?" snapped Hayato.
The giant skeleton monster sitting on a chair suddenly opened its eyes when Rafe put his foot on the floor of the tenth floor of the dungeon. Lightning seemed to strike the giant skeleton monster's eyeballs. The flashes came from the armor on the back of the giant skeleton monster that was still sitting still.
Suddenly, Hayato fell silent as he felt the ground around them begin to tremble, Hayato and Sonia's goose bumps instantly stood up because of the fear they felt, Hayato and Sonia's bodies began to feel goose bumps. Such a dark mana overflow was strongly spreading throughout the entire tenth floor area of the dungeon.
"Impossible, the mana overflow alone feels so terrifying," Sonia muttered with a pale face.
"So this is a monster equivalent to five S-rank adventurers?" thought Hayato with goose bumps all over his body.
To be continued...