It was like an endless trial.
Wave after wave of monster adventurers continuously "respawned" and appeared before the group. Moreover, they were indeed becoming more and more like their own party. Not only were their party compositions and the weapons they used identical, but slowly, even their "combat styles" began to take shape and mirror theirs.
A bug monster flying in mid-air wielded a longsword. Like the young girl surrounded by the breeze, it continuously spun and circled around, launching attacks at him.
A heavily armored tiger-man wielded a greatsword, but mid-fight, it suddenly switched to a long katana and launched an attack at him.
And then there was one just like Tiona. A Minotaur enveloping its entire body in a blood aura, erupting with an incredibly terrifying might—it even completely replicated the girl's peculiar weapon, the "Great Twin Blades," leaving Tiona herself staring in dumbfounded shock.
Under these circumstances.
Isagi even had a sudden whim. He directly switched his "combat mode," stowing away his greatsword and long katana. Forsaking melee combat, he began to use his magic instead.
First was the flashy "Carian Magic." Azure magic power transformed into greatswords and arrows, sparkling like a cluster of stars.
Night Magic, resembling a dense fog, slowly eroded the enemies' vitality, or transformed into dim, pitch-black shooting stars, firing off projectiles identical to Glintstone Magic.
There was also the Ice Magic he had newly learned after leveling up—frost-coated weapons, freezing boulders, a silvery-white greatsword, and the "Zamor Ice Storm" that formed around himself.
In addition to these, there were numerous Magma Magics, Gravity Magics, and various Incantations.
Whenever a wave of monster adventurers respawned before him, Isagi would very deliberately switch to a different type of magic to defeat them.
As expected, this completely baffled the Dungeon.
It also began to follow his lead, switching up the specific monster adventurer that corresponded to him. At first, it wielded a greatsword, and then it started using magic and incantations... However, it could never quite keep up with his speed. After all, he could still switch Character Cards, and even switch to "Return to Journey to the West," utilizing Spirits to transform into other monsters.
After he used the [Pale King] once to wipe out this group of monster adventurers...
Isagi could distinctly feel that the Dungeon seemed to have crashed, plunging into a profound silence for a long, long time.
Heh.
Tried to copy and paste me, but ended up frying your own brain, huh!
In Isagi's eyes, the Dungeon was simply an idiot. This kind of "mechanic" that could be seen through at a single glance was just way too simple.
Wasn't it just using repeatedly respawning monsters that gradually grew stronger to become their "mirrors"? It wasn't exactly anything super rare or novel. And now, as a result, it had been left completely at a loss by his constant switching of combat styles.
But at the end of the day, continuing like this wasn't a solution.
Checking the time, his pocket watch showed that five or six hours had already passed since they entered this "Dark Zone." Just repelling those respawning monster adventurer parties had already accounted for dozens of waves. Yet, from the looks of it, there was still no end in sight.
Even Ais had begun to worry. Could those monsters actually grow to a point where they're even stronger than us?
Of course, none of that was the most important thing. The priority was that they couldn't stay trapped in this place!
It was like walking into an endless labyrinth. From their current perspective, this Dark Zone was incredibly unusual. The group had already been moving forward for a very, very long time.
Yet, they seemed to be walking in circles. The grayish-white tree trunk path beneath their feet hadn't changed at all, and the sides were still piled high with bug corpses.
In mid-air, the similarly floating bug corpses and those drifting, pitch-black threads remained exactly the same as when they first arrived.
In fact, when Isagi led the girls to turn around and walk back, within just a few minutes, they unexpectedly returned to the previous "Burning" zone.
It truly was a labyrinth.
This proved that ever since they entered the "Dark" zone, their party had been spinning in circles the entire time, hardly advancing at all.
What was going on?! Such a thing had never occurred in the Dungeon of the past.
To Ais, Ryuu, and the others, this was a bit too far beyond their comprehension. Isagi, on the other hand, was quite familiar with it and quickly realized something...
When they once again returned to that broad, grayish-white tree trunk path piled with bug corpses, Lefiya was the first to propose a very constructive viewpoint.
"Could those spheres of light over there be the key?"
Following the Elf girl's pointing finger, everyone looked toward the distant, pitch-black depths. There, several clusters of light existed. One of them, just like before, was slowly advancing toward their side.
"Why are there so many spheres of light? But since only one comes toward us each time, shouldn't we proactively go look for the other spheres of light?"
Isagi felt that Lefiya's perspective made sense.
"But the problem is," Heith said, "even as we walk forward like this, we aren't closing the distance to the other spheres of light at all."
Because, just like Lefiya, she hadn't needed to lift a finger to deal with those monster adventurers earlier. As a result, the two girls could focus their thoughts elsewhere, naturally pondering the "strangeness" of this zone.
From the very beginning, the party had actually been constantly moving forward. But aside from getting closer and closer to the sphere of light that was already heading their way, the distance to the other spheres hadn't shortened in the slightest.
They were like distant stars hanging far away in the pitch-black night sky—visible, yet untouchable.
Accompanied by the point Lefiya raised, Isagi also agreed that the Elf girl was right. Then the problem at hand became very simple: there had to be a hidden path that would allow their side to approach and find the other spheres of light.
Therefore—thinking of hidden paths, it was as if he suddenly remembered something.
Isagi retrieved a small clay pot filled with dung pellets from his waist and casually tossed it straight into the mid-air space beyond the tree trunk path.
The first clay pot simply plummeted straight down; who knew if it fell into some other zone further below. Then came the second; the third; the fourth...
Under his continuous probing, finally, one of the clay pots just "froze" in mid-air.
"?!"
The girls beside him all expressed their astonishment. Just a moment ago, they had no idea what Isagi was actually doing, but now...
There's an "invisible" path in mid-air?!
Ais seemed to be the first to react. She flew over and tentatively stepped around the clay pot, subsequently discovering that it was indeed true! There was clearly nothing beneath her feet, yet the solid sensation transmitted back informed her that this was walkable ground.
An "Invisible Bridge." It was too classic; Isagi knew it would be like this!
Heh.
"Let's just walk," Isagi said.
Compared to the headache-inducing "invisible bridge" designs in games, the one before them clearly couldn't stump him and the girls. Because it was very simple: both he and Ais could fly.
If push came to shove, he and she could even carry two people each and just fly around to explore this zone. It just wasn't necessary.
For now, relying on the blonde girl alone to step along the transparent mid-air path and gently test the way was sufficient. Stepping front, back, left, and right—since she could fly anyway, there was absolutely no need to worry about falling.
She was able to easily find the path forward in no time. And so, very quickly, the party began to march through "mid-air."
They crossed past the countless floating bug corpses that seemed frozen in place, as well as the drifting black threads.
Before long, they could see another grayish-white tree trunk path piled with bug corpses, as well as a black Site of Grace floating in mid-air not far away.
Obviously, that was a "save point," proving that his line of thought was correct.
Faintly, Lefiya and Heith, who had been constantly keeping an eye on the distant points of light, both noticed something. The point of light that had originally been getting closer and closer to them was gradually pulling away, while another previously distant point of light had quietly drawn much closer.
Then they would keep walking. Keep searching for "transparent" paths in mid-air.
Subsequently, as they walked, they bumped into an incredibly massive and thick grayish-white tree trunk. Along its edge existed a spiral, highly narrow "path," and it finally began to lead "upwards."
Following that, even the faint, chilling gaze that had been present from the very beginning—as if something was watching them—was slowly drawing near...
They had indeed gone the right way.
Especially when, after walking up along the tree trunk for quite a while, the end revealed a tree hollow.
Upon stepping inside, amidst this pure pitch-black darkness, Isagi and the girls utilized the light of the "Pearl" in his hand to spot a familiar figure.
It was the pilgrimaging little bug, Nick. It was already dead.
Inside the grotto-like tree hollow, countless bug corpses were piled up, and among them, quite a few were Nicks.
That's right, not just one "Nick," but many, many "Nicks." They looked exactly the same, and they even held a tiny "Pearl" in their hands. In this tree hollow originally filled with darkness, they emitted clusters of light that linked together, ultimately illuminating their lifeless "selves."
Isagi had actually guessed this outcome beforehand.
Especially when, after the group left the tree hollow and arrived at another grayish-white tree trunk path to continue forward, the piled-up bug corpses on both sides grew increasingly numerous, and the corpses of other monsters also began to appear.
Inside the Great Tree Labyrinth, aside from various bug-type monsters, there was also an abundance of "Plant-type Monsters" and numerous "Beasts."
Giant Bugbears; Lizardmen; mushroom-like Dark Spores; Sword Stags...
The myriad of monsters had long since turned to skeletal white bones, piling higher and higher, even forming something akin to a towering city wall.
And amidst such a path, Isagi and the girls saw yet another "acquaintance." It was the old bug that had been chattering endlessly before.
It didn't have a Pearl, so it must have been completely wriggling in the "darkness." And precisely because of that, it hadn't seen its surroundings, right?
The "Pearl" from the [Place of Truth] naturally allowed one to see the [Truth].
Therefore, Nick, having obtained the Pearl, died—just like the other monsters and bugs that had died here.
However, the old bug, having never obtained a Pearl, only had pitch-black darkness before its eyes. It still understood nothing. Thus, it would simply walk and walk, until suddenly plummeting from a broken path back to the pilgrimage route further below, only to continue climbing upward in an endless cycle.
Paradise is a lie. It doesn't exist at all.
The Anthropomorphic Holy Church had entirely orchestrated and fabricated this "Pilgrimage Route," deceiving all the monsters on the 19th-24th Floors. They attempted to continuously climb upwards to reach Paradise, but their ultimate fate was to die within this darkness.
As for the Church's goal... naturally, it was to accumulate power.
Monsters would continuously respawn; this was the Dungeon's "mechanic." This held true even for this special Dungeon that had undergone changes due to the influence of his own skills.
But the Church seemed to have used some kind of ability so that after the monsters on the 19th-24th Floors died, the vast majority of them—or perhaps gradually all of them—did not respawn.
Instead, they transformed into a certain kind of power, ultimately leading to the appearance of "Absolute Evil" and "Alfia."
Mhm. The plot logic probably goes something like that.
No wonder the journey all the way here had been so arduous; it turned out it was intentionally leading the monsters to their deaths. If that was the case, then were those monster adventurers also a part of the power the Dungeon had accumulated?
No wonder they kept optimizing and becoming more and more like him.
In that case, was Alfia really the final BOSS of the Middle Levels?!
Looking at it this way, they would have to at least wait until everyone leveled up to Lv.6 before they could even attempt to defeat her.
Isagi instantly thought of many, many things.
Until, after "exploring" with the girls for quite a while, they finally found the key to breaking the deadlock—the previously unreachable light hanging far away at the end of the pitch-black darkness.
When they finally drew near.
Appearing before him and the girls was an incredibly ugly, giant monster fish. Looking somewhat like a "deep-sea monster," its entire body emitted a grayish-white glow. Resembling a long snake, it simply stood upright in mid-air.
As they approached.
Visible to the naked eye, a golden Site of Grace appeared to the side. This clearly indicated that if they took another step forward, a BOSS battle would be waiting for them.
Isagi also clearly recognized this guy. It was the very same giant monster fish that had attacked him when he first arrived in this "Dark" zone.
Furthermore, from the other party's pitch-black maw, a faceless "female humanoid figure" would emerge—the BOSS named[Hero Who Subjugates Miracles].
Come to think of it, what exactly was that? An adventurer who had once defeated Goliath?
Although he had roughly figured out the plot of the Middle Levels, there were still many details that remained unknown. He figured he would probably have to wait until he killed it and acquired whatever materials, weapons, or equipment this guy dropped to understand the crucial plot elements hidden within.
However.
Isagi had no intention of continuing forward to initiate the BOSS battle.
Because—this place right here was a perfectly convenient spot to grind Ability Scores!
The monster adventurer parties that would continuously and infinitely respawn and run right over to them were absolutely perfect for leveling up to Lv.6.
If he killed the BOSS right in front of him, causing this zone to stop spawning monsters as well, then where on earth was he supposed to make up for the Ability Scores he was lacking? Am I right?!
____
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