[Gale Squall 'Marlinda']
[Giant Crab 'Gornadron']
[Mutant Current]
[Giant Goblin Vanguard]
[Brilliant Grand Arcana]
All at once, a flood of names surfaced from the depths of Isagi's mind and the girls' — and they kept coming, one after another.
It was obvious. In this particular, custom-built Dungeon, what were called "Enhanced Species" had apparently been designated as bosses.
Wow.
That was a ridiculous number of them.
Isagi counted. From the moment this had started, over a dozen monster names had already risen to the surface of his mind — and the list was still growing.
"This can't go on."
No one needed Riveria to say it. Everyone had already noticed.
The monsters' assault had shifted. What had once been a furious, roiling tide — chaotic, uncoordinated, the creatures stumbling over each other as often as they attacked — had transformed into something else entirely.
It had become orderly.
The larger monsters stepped forward first, forming living walls of flesh while simultaneously closing in to encircle the group. Then the flying types and the ranged attackers fell into rhythm behind them, launching wave after relentless wave of strikes, never giving anyone a moment to breathe.
Precise. Layered. And every time the group thought they had a read on the pattern, it shifted completely — something new, something different, something impossible to predict.
There were simply too many species.
Different monsters, different attack patterns — and now, with the Enhanced Species issuing what could only be described as commands, the collective fighting power of the horde had visibly jumped up an entire tier.
They had even learned to play to their own strengths and coordinate with one another.
It was a colossal headache.
They had to break through — and more than that, they had to push into the heart of the horde and kill the Enhanced Species hiding inside it.
Right now, the only thing visible were a few vague shapes — individuals whose silhouettes were just slightly different from those of their kin — roaring out what sounded unmistakably like commands.
And they were cowering behind the mass of their own troops, disgustingly smart about staying hidden.
No question about it.
These Enhanced Species knew exactly how weak they still were. So they were content to whip the mindless, ordinary monsters forward as cannon fodder while they themselves kept devouring Magic Stones and growing.
Absolute cowards.
Isagi summoned Teardrop Big Bro and sent him up front alongside Ais to carve a path forward.
He himself spread his golden wings and took to the air, taking over the role the golden-haired girl had been playing — providing aerial guidance for the group, steering them with precision through the monster tide, straight toward where the Enhanced Species lurked.
Mark. Wait. Then came Riveria and Lefiya's magic.
The monsters' levels were ultimately not that high.
Two first-tier mages — and with Haruhime's enhancement magic layered on top — nearly every time the divine flames fell, they struck true, eliminating the targeted Enhanced Species with precision.
And yet, even so, there were still far too many.
The monsters were endless. As if the Dungeon's power itself were endless —
For a stretch of time, even Isagi couldn't spare a single thought for anything else.
Cut. Cut. Cut.
An inexhaustible wall of monsters stood before him, and through the relentless swinging of his sword, the moonlight greatsword — already badly damaged from the earlier battle with Zard — began to hum and vibrate once more.
It was an almost imperceptible tremor. Only he, its wielder, could feel it — the faint warning of something about to shatter.
Reluctantly, Isagi withdrew the greatsword and activated [Furnace of Many Forms] once more, channeling golden magical energy to conjure a pair of razor-edged claws in its place, using them as his weapon.
He found himself wishing he could switch character cards — transform into the Land of Reeds form.
With this many monsters, he'd rack up Shura points fast, and then flip the switch, go full Shura mode, and rampage through the lot of them.
But wishing was one thing.
The group pressed steadily onward, descending along the mountain path.
Monster corpses piled up behind them — layer upon layer, thick enough to choke the road.
For one brief moment, Isagi's gaze drifted to the massive waterfall thundering down beside them, and he idly wondered whether it might just be simpler to jump.
But then he thought better of it.
What if there really was a Monster Rex waiting for him at the bottom?
If it was an ordinary Two-Headed Dragon Amphisbaena, that would be manageable — but if it had been empowered by his own skill, and he dropped into its domain in the middle of the water, its actual strength would be nothing like the Guild's estimated Lv.5.
It would very likely be Lv.7 or above.
He shook his head.
Scattered thoughts, swept clean.
Isagi and the girls kept their eyes on what was in front of them, pressing forward at a ferocious, efficient pace.
And through all of it, even in the thick of the unending fighting, Ryuu-senpai had been turning something over in her mind — the question she herself had raised earlier: why is the Dungeon doing this?
Why?
Why had a Monster Feast erupted the moment they arrived in this area resembling the [Great Waterfall] — and why had it not stopped since?
And why were the Monster Feast's creatures leveled so low, far beneath the group's ability to pose any real threat?
It made no sense. It defied logic.
Back in the [Great Tree Labyrinth], not a single monster had appeared.
So why now? Why a massive Monster Feast, of all things?
If Isagi's hypothesis was correct — that the Dungeon was simply reacting to whoever entered it, and that the ancient Dungeon, unrestrained by the great god Ouranos, was more "awake" and more "autonomous" than its modern counterpart — then what exactly was it doing right now?
People were like that.
Once you started asking questions, it was hard to stop.
Ryuu had fallen into exactly that state. The Dungeon before her felt impossibly mysterious — its unknown behaviors somehow more terrifying than the monsters swarming right in front of her face.
Until, all at once, something clicked.
"The Dungeon is stalling for time!"
These monsters, in truth, had no real ability to stop them from descending.
If the Dungeon's goal was to prevent them from reaching Albert and the others who had already gone deeper — then it should have conjured a sufficiently powerful guardian boss, like the tree dragon that had blocked Mam and Airon before.
Not this — not a scattered, diffuse expenditure of power poured into a horde of monsters that were numerous but pitifully low-leveled.
Which left only one explanation.
The Dungeon was doing its best to slow them down while using the absolute minimum of power — but was its goal really to prevent them from finding Albert and the others? Or was it something else entirely —
Much later, whether it was Ryuu-senpai, Isagi, or any of the other girls — they all got their definitive answer.
The Dungeon had indeed been stalling for time.
Its purpose had been to slow their descent to the base of the great waterfall.
And now, before their very eyes —
Through water so clear it was almost transparent, Isagi and the girls could all see it: an impossibly grand tower rising from the depths, and alongside it... a castle?
Through the deep blue of the water, both tower and castle stretched downward without any visible end, plunging into unfathomable depths.
Like something out of a dream.
But there was no other way forward. No other path existed except to go in.
The floor of the cavern, apart from the vast, bottomless lake at its center, was nothing but bare rock walls on all sides — and even now, more monsters of every variety were still pouring out from them.
It felt like a deliberate push — as if the Dungeon itself were herding them, forcing them to leap into the water, into the unmistakably conspicuous tower and castle waiting below.
Isagi studied it more carefully than the others.
He noticed that deep in the lake's depths, the tower still appeared to be taking shape — still forming.
Like pieces of a puzzle snapping together, bricks and stone blocks were visibly extending the castle and tower further and further downward at the edge of his vision.
As for just how deep it went — no one could say.
"Hah—"
Ryuu-senpai's earlier guess had been right on the mark.
The entire [Monster Feast] they'd fought through on the way here had been nothing but a delaying tactic — because of their arrival, most likely due to his skill, the Dungeon had been in the process of forming an entirely new region.
And the only thing Isagi could bring himself to hope right now was that this gradually forming tower and castle hadn't affected Albert and the others who had already gone deeper.
Though in a sense, maybe it was still a good thing — because whatever else could be said about it, the Dungeon had squeezed out power that should have gone toward nurturing the [Black Dragon] and used it to create all of this instead.
"Let's go."
He glanced at the time.
They had been in this ancient Dungeon for over a dozen hours now. If they moved quickly, there might still be time to explore the tower and castle ahead.
Besides, staying put was no longer an option.
The monsters respawning around them showed no sign of letting up — the Dungeon's way of making very clear that they needed to get moving.
Then let's go.
Let's see what new trick the Dungeon is planning to pull this time!!
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Oshi No Ko: Co-starring with Kana Arima
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!