"Truly spectacular."
Cain sighed in admiration.
Within his field of vision, an enormous waterfall more than four hundred meters wide poured down from above.
The mist churned in the air, glowing azure under the light and reflecting the surrounding blue crystals, creating a scene that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
Unfortunately, the beautiful atmosphere did not last long.
Several half human, half bird monsters suddenly appeared in the sky, ruining the scenery.
"Those are Harpies and Gargoyles."
Tione stepped forward and briefly introduced them.
Harpies and Gargoyle Birds were monsters that began appearing from the Twenty Fifth Floor onward.
The former possessed crimson colored feathers, while the latter had yellow feathers and an ugly face full of wrinkles and deep creases, making them look extremely grotesque.
Perhaps having noticed Cain and the others, the monsters that had originally been circling in the air suddenly screeched and swooped down toward them as a group.
"Lefiya."
Tione called out.
"Leave it to me."
The elf girl stepped forward and raised her staff.
Compared to the terrain on other floors, the structure of the Water City was even more unusual.
Centered around the Great Blue Waterfall, a massive hollow connected the area between the Twenty Fifth and Twenty Seventh Floors, allowing the waterfall to cascade down through the opening.
Although the scenery looked magnificent, the terrain was extremely dangerous for adventurers exploring the Dungeon.
If someone slipped and fell from the hollow area, they would crash into the waterfall basin hundreds of meters below.
Even if their physical endurance allowed them to survive the impact, they would still be swept away by the powerful current toward the Lower Floors and eventually perish.
In such troublesome terrain, when faced with aerial monsters like Harpies and Gargoyle Birds, the effectiveness of melee adventurers would be severely limited.
On the other hand, archers and Magic users capable of long range combat became particularly important, allowing them to attack before the monsters could approach.
"O proud warriors, archers of the forest. The invading enemies stand before us. Raise your bows..."
As the chant echoed out, a surge of Magic power gathered around Lefiya.
Perhaps because she had not had many opportunities to act during the journey so far, her chanting speed was about thirty percent faster than usual and she seemed extremely motivated.
However, at that moment she suddenly noticed Cain beside her raising his hand.
He placed his right hand on the hilt of his tachi, Raikiri.
Just as she wondered what he intended to do, she saw his other hand holding more than a dozen small metal marbles, which he tossed into the air.
"Current Propulsion."
Golden lightning erupted instantly.
In the next moment, a cold flash cut through the air, followed by a rapid series of sharp sounds slicing through the wind.
When Lefiya finally reacted, she saw the metal marbles Cain had thrown flying outward in curved trajectories, shooting out from multiple angles.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The Harpies and Gargoyle Birds that had been diving toward them exploded one after another into clouds of blood, their bodies falling into the waterfall basin below amid piercing screams.
Click.
Cain returned Raikiri to its sheath and the lightning wrapped around his arm slowly faded away.
"How was it? Pretty cool, right?"
Looking at Lefiya, who was still standing there in a daze, Cain showed a slightly proud expression.
"This is the Marble Sword Aura Technique I developed based on the Snake Ball principle. Even if the enemy is hiding behind small obstacles, I can still hit them."
Lefiya: "..."
What exactly is a Snake Ball?
I don't understand. I really don't understand at all.
Lefiya's expression became complicated as the Magic power lingering around her slowly dissipated.
For some reason, she suddenly felt that maybe she should not have been standing there in the first place.
Ais drew the rapier from her waist and stared at it silently for two seconds.
"Cain..."
"Not teaching it. Don't even ask."
Cain immediately raised a hand to stop her.
"This is my secret ultimate technique. It is not something I teach outsiders."
Ais calmly sheathed her weapon again.
Tiona blinked.
"I actually really want to learn that move of yours. It looks incredibly cool."
Tione also nodded slightly.
"This is the first time I have seen someone use a sword like that. Your Marble Sword technique seems extremely powerful."
"Of course it is powerful."
Cain chuckled lightly.
The inspiration for this move came from Demon Slayer Cain.
After watching that version of himself use a tennis racket to kill demons from a distance, he suddenly had an idea.
Who said a tennis racket had to look like a normal tennis racket?
As long as it could strike the marbles, a tachi could function as a tennis racket too.
...
After appreciating the scenery of the Water City for a while, Cain and the others continued moving.
After descending to the Twenty Fifth Floor through the passage, they arrived near the center of the floor.
If they wanted to continue toward deeper floors, they needed to travel west along the edge of the Great Hollow and locate the caves that led into the labyrinth carved within the cliffs.
The path along the cliff was not especially wide.
Most areas were about three meters across, while a few narrow sections were closer to two meters.
Strictly speaking, it was not a particularly dangerous path.
Under normal circumstances, even an ordinary person could walk across it safely.
That was assuming they were not being attacked by monsters and that they avoided looking at the bottomless cliff to their right, which had absolutely no railings.
Looking at the girl walking beside him on stilts while keeping dangerously close to the cliff edge, Cain frowned slightly.
"Are you deliberately increasing the difficulty for yourself?"
"Yes."
Ais nodded faintly.
Cain had mentioned before that only when one could maintain their breathing rhythm between life and death could the training be considered complete.
Walking along a cliff edge while wearing stilt shoes was clearly a dangerous task.
Because of this, the pressure in Ais's heart increased significantly and her breathing rhythm fluctuated repeatedly.
"Miss Ais, why don't you walk a little further inward? This is really too dangerous."
Lefiya's voice came from behind.
There is a kind of panic that comes from simply watching someone else in danger.
Seeing Ais walking shakily along the cliff edge on stilts made Lefiya's palms sweat and her legs tremble.
She was extremely nervous.
"Relax, Lefiya."
Beside her, Tiona looked completely calm.
"If Ais falls, I will grab her immediately."
"Uh... alright then."
Lefiya's palms were still sweating.
Only after everyone safely reached the end of the cliff path did Lefiya finally release a long breath.
After entering the cave, several branching passages appeared before them.
The environment looked very similar to the Cavern Labyrinth on the upper floors, except that the rocky ground had been replaced by blue crystal formations.
Standing in the open space near the cave entrance, Lefiya wiped her hands on her clothes to dry the sweat before looking toward Cain ahead.
"By the way, which floor is our actual destination?"
"If we want Miss Ais to gain real combat training, we should at least reach the Deep Floors, right?"
Cain nodded.
"The final destination is the Thirty Seventh Floor, but before that we will stay on the Twenty Seventh Floor for one or two days."
Lefiya was briefly stunned.
"Why? Is there something you want to collect?"
Because of what happened on the Eighteenth Floor earlier, Lefiya instinctively assumed that Cain was planning to gather ingredients again.
But this time Cain shook his head.
"The ingredients I needed from the Water City have already been entrusted to Ottar."
"The reason I want to stay on the Twenty Seventh Floor is because the timing should be about right."
"Timing?"
Lefiya frowned.
Normally, when people mentioned time inside the Dungeon, they were referring to survival time.
But clearly, what Cain was referring to now was something entirely different.
Twenty Seventh Floor. Timing.
A shocking guess suddenly appeared in Lefiya's mind.
At the same moment, Cain's voice came from ahead, confirming her suspicion.
"I asked the Guild about it earlier."
"The respawn time for the Labyrinth King of the Twenty Seventh Floor should fall within these next two days."
...
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