The Royal Dungeon Raid, contrary to the initial fear of the Otherworlders, went smoothly despite the absence of Ralyks.
From the Eleventh Floor, they descended to the Twelfth Floor, and even went through it with minimal help from the Grand Elementals that Ralyks placed as their chaperones.
At first they were surprised by how relatively easy the whole venture was.
After all, they had been primed to believe that the Dungeon was an incredibly dangerous and unpredictable place.
However, with their current level of strength, nothing of the sort applied to them.
The Otherworlders could safely and easily dispatch the mobs of the Dungeon Floors, and the Bosses of the Eleventh and Twelfth Floors were relatively easy to beat.
Not only were they a lot more powerful than before, but their ability to make decisions on the fly—such as choosing which strategy and formation to utilize—had greatly increased.
Everything was going very smoothly.
… Too smoothly.
********
"Looks like this is it. The final Boss Room for the day."
Adonis smiled as he touched the stone surface of one of the two massive double doors.
The door looked to be about thirty meters tall, and the stone surface of the doors felt eerily rough and dense. One look at the entrance would be enough to ward off any intruders who thought to enter.
However, this brave band of Raiders were different.
They were Otherworlders, each now above the Level of fifty.
All of them were also well-equipped, and while there were signs of exhaustion among most of the members of the team, they had immense confidence in their abilities.
They were able to clear the Eleventh and Twelfth Floors within half the time than they initially anticipated.
Most of the exhaustion they accrued was due to their non-stop journey as well as the the utilization of Mana and exertion of their physical abilities.
It was a natural reaction from exploring three Floors of a Dungeon for hours.
"I suppose it's time for a break." Adonis smiled at his fellow teammates.
He had done the most out of everyone present, and he could feel the strain on his body. If he took a break for thirty minutes or so, he was confident in his ability to fight at full power.
'It's pretty obvious that we're going to win this due to the streak we've had thus far. But, we can't take any chances.' He thought to himself.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
"Why can't we just go in now, though?" Justin whined, his voice containing more frustration than exhaustion.
"The sooner we finish, the faster we can leave this place and spend our time doing other things."
"You mean, things like messing around?" Trisha snapped at Justin, causing everyone in the vast hallway to burst out in laughter.
Most of them were already seated on the ground, intending to camp outside the Boss Room until it was Break Time was over.
However, a few people like Justin and Adonis were still on their feet.
"I'm serious this time, though. We already faced the mobs, so we already know the kind of difficulty to expect going in."
Everyone stared at one another and contemplated Justin's words.
He wasn't wrong in his line of reasoning. After all, one could always estimate the overall strength of a Boss Monster by taking a good look at the goons that occupied the same Floor.
Of course, the Boss Monster was going to be phenomenally stronger than the mobs, but not by some unreasonable extent,
If the Otherworlders were able to defeat the mobs with restive ease, it was pretty much guaranteed that they could take on the Boss.
Even Adonis thought the same.
'It's our last Raid for today. If we just go in now and use our full strength, I'm sure we could take the Boss down pretty quickly.'
However, Adonis wasn't one to disregard procedure.
It was time to rest, and as long as they weren't at full strength, it wasn't something he could endorse.
"Come on! What do we have to fear? We even have Sir Ralyks' Grand Elementals with us!"
The four beings were silently standing in the background, their looming presences a reminder of the assured protection that they offered.
There really wasn't much to fear.
Despite all of these reasons, no one stood up from the ground. They mostly gave expressions of uncertainty and hesitation.
Perhaps they were waiting for the first to support Justin.
"I agree with Justin." Eric finally rose to his feet, flexing his glasses as he did so.
"However, rather than act rashly… why don't we just vote?"
He turned to Justin, who was now beaming and giving him a thumbs up.
"Justin and I agree to go in now. That's two votes out of nine. Who else supports this?"
Many people would assume that Eric was taking the side of his friend and also desired to conclude the raid as quickly as possible, but that wasn't the case at all.
In fact, the whole reason he desired to take this route was for a completely different reason.
'Eric doesn't want Justin to embarrass himself by pressing the matter too much.' Adonis thought to himself as he watched the whole thing.
'No one likes it when someone is being too overbearing. At least, when it comes to voting, everyone is given an easy chance to establish their opinions.'
If this was the case, why did Eric decide to vote in support of Justin? Well, the reason was pretty simple.
They were friends.
Of course, Eric would support his friend.
"I don't agree with this decision." Alicia raised her hand, a slight frown playing on her face.
"It's just for thirty minutes, so why don't we just take a solid break before going in?"
Her eyes slowly trailed to the massive entrance, and she shivered a little.
"I have a bad feeling about all this—including the Boss that's waiting for us there."
"So, you want us to give up on it or what?" Justin interrupted Alicia, causing her to snap back as soon as he spoke.
"That's not what I meant! It's just a bad feeling is all…"
Glancing at her Familiar, Alicia could see her also trembling slightly.
In fact, the source of her unease was Snow.
'Don't worry. We'll be fine…' Her expression seemed to say as she stroked the rabbit with her gentle hands.
"I agree with Alicia. There's no need to rush. We're already way ahead of schedule. Let's just wait a little while longer."
Once Adonis spoke up, the choice was pretty much made. Not only was his tone calm and reasonable, his words carried a lot of sense with them.
It also helped that he was the Hero, as well as the leader of the Raid Team.
His words pretty much settled the entire argument.
"Tch. Fine… whatever." Justin sighed in defeat as he plopped to the ground.
He was eager, sure, but he wasn't stupid enough to rebel against Adonis' authority.
Besides, it wasn't like he had any bad intentions to begin with.
'I'm sure he just believes we can take the thing behind this door head on.' Adonis stared at the massive entrance once again and furrowed his brow.
'Let's hope he's right.'