As one of the founders of Orario, Ouranos sat year-round in the depths of the Guild to perform prayer rituals.
While using his divine authority to suppress the Dungeon, he also established a certain connection with it.
Through this connection, Ouranos could detect anomalies in the Dungeon at the first moment they occurred.
"Half a minute ago, the Dungeon entered a berserk state and birthed a special monster on the 27th floor."
"After that, ordinary monsters from the 25th to the 27th floors also began to spawn frequently, the entire Water city has begun to riot."
Faint candlelight illuminated the basement; leaning against the massive stone throne, Ouranos showed a rare serious expression.
"Fels, you and the Xenos are currently closest to the 27th floor. I need you to help investigate the specific situation."
"I understand."
Fels nodded.
The meeting place he had agreed upon with the Xenos was the 24th floor, next floor would be the 25th.
From the 25th to the 27th floors, centered around the Great waterfall Fall, the three floors of the Water city were interconnected.
As long as they reached the 25th floor, they could use the help of flying monsters like Ray to quickly reach the 27th floor, the whole process wouldn't take much time.
"Ray, at this time, but I need help."
Hanging up the communication with Ouranos, Fels came before Ray and explained the situation.
"No problem, leave it to me."
Ray nodded and agreed immediately.
"I'll go with you."
Lyd followed along.
As one of the Xenos leaders, his physical constitution was no worse than a Level 5 adventurer, he could help clear the path and deal with monsters along the way.
"Take me too."
"I want to help too."
"Guji guji!"
As Lyd stepped forward, a group of Xenos of different races also jumped out.
The strength of these Xenos was mostly at the Level 3 or Level 4 level, they were either small in size or possessed the ability to fly.
As long as they were paired properly, they could also go directly from the 25th floor to the 27th floor with Lyd and the others.
"That's enough people, these will do."
Leaving the Xenos who were not convenient to move at the base, Lyd led the team toward the 25th floor.
The Xenos bases were without exception located in hidden spaces within the floors, the base on the 24th floor was located on the west side of the floor, very close to a passage leading to the 25th floor.
With a group of Level 4 and Level 5 Xenos clearing the way, Fels and the others advanced at full speed, taking only about ten minutes to reach the 25th floor through the passage.
"Ray, take us down."
"Okay."
Ray only had a torso that resembled a human's, her legs were still in the shape of talons.
With her claws gripping the inside of Fels's skeleton, she exerted force and flew down with him.
Passing over the first two tiers of pools that were arranged like steps, Ray, arriving above the 27th floor, immediately discovered the mission objective.
"That's... Amphisbaena?"
Looking at the massive monster over thirty meters tall rampaging, a look of horror appeared on Ray's face.
"Why does it have eight heads?!"
"I don't know, but this should be the abnormal situation Ouranos mentioned."
Fels was also startled by the monster in front of him, but more than the Amphisbaena, he was concerned about another figure.
A massive barrier enveloped nearly half of the waterfall basin, and a figure entwined with golden lightning was continuously fighting the monster.
"That's... Cain?!"
"He's Cain?"
A look of surprise appeared on Ray's face.
The battle between Cain and Amphisbaena was too conspicuous; she naturally noticed that figure as well.
But Ray hadn't expected that the person fighting that monster would be the Cain who had rescued the Xenos.
"Fels! Let's go help him!"
"No! Wait a moment!"
Fels called out to stop Ray just in time.
It wasn't until Ray spoke about helping and he subconsciously looked for a suitable landing spot that he noticed the other two figures beside the waterfall basin.
Hestia Familia member, Sanjono Haruhime.
Freya Familia Captain, Ottar.
Knowing the relationship between Cain and the Freya Familia, Fels was certain that these two being here must be related to Cain.
In that case, the situation on the scene was very strange.
Why was Cain fighting the mutated Amphisbaena while Ottar, the highest combat power, was slacking off in the distance and doing nothing?
"Fels, that person seems to have noticed us."
Ray's voice rang out again.
Fels, who was thinking about the reason, looked over again and happened to lock eyes with Ottar.
"...Ray, take me over there."
Since they had been discovered, there was no need to hide anymore.
Puzzled by the current situation, Fels directed Ray to drop him at the edge of the pool.
Leaving Ray and the subsequently arriving Lyd and the others on standby, he approached Ottar alone.
"Who are you?"
Ottar asked expressionlessly.
Through aura perception, he could roughly judge the level of the target's strength.
Setting aside that group of monsters in the back, this person in black was only at the level of LV4.
Identified as small fry, could be dealt with in one punch.
"I am a partner of Cain, sent on a mission to investigate the anomaly on the 27th floor."
On the other side, Fels, unaware that he was being treated as small fry by Ottar, responded: "Ottar, can you please explain the current situation?"
"...Ask Cain yourself later."
Ottar fell silent for a moment, revealing nothing.
In fact, Ottar didn't know what to say to Fels either, as from his perspective, the sequence of events was also very strange.
Cain invited him to fish blasting -> came to the 27th floor with Cain -> Cain started blasting fish -> Amphisbaena suddenly spawned.
After watching all this, the only thing Ottar could be sure of was that the mutation of the Amphisbaena was related to Cain.
As for why an Amphisbaena would spawn, and a mutated one at that, he didn't know.
However, there was one thing Ottar could be certain of.
"The battle is almost over."
Ottar looked toward the distant battlefield.
Through observation, he could see many things.
The mutated Amphisbaena, aside from the strength advantage brought by its massive size, only had other ability values at the LV6 level. Furthermore, the most troublesome parts were the number of abilities and its counters to Cain's magic.
But with the boost from the Uchide no Kozuchi, even if Cain didn't use Current Propulsion or the full version of Afterglow, he could still deal damage to the Amphisbaena.
As the battle progressed, the Spirit Devouring Barrier also began to exert its power, continuously draining the Amphisbaena's strength to feed back to Cain.
With the dual boost of the Uchide no Kozuchi and the Spirit Devouring Barrier, Cain had already completed a numerical overtake, entering the realm of LV7 in terms of physical fitness alone.
With sufficient base stats, dealing with the Amphisbaena would only get easier for Cain.
Boom!
As if to answer Ottar's speculation, Cain suddenly exerted force in the battlefield, striking the Amphisbaena's torso with a punch.
The metal surface defense was instantly pierced, and a massive bloody hole appeared on the Amphisbaena's body.
But unlike before where he would hit and run, this time after wounding the enemy, Cain didn't retreat but instead closed in directly.
"It's time to end this."
A cold light broke through the air as the RaiKiri blade, radiating lightning, was instantly thrust into the bloody hole, sticking to the Amphisbaena at zero distance.
In the next moment, he gripped the hilt with both hands and let out a roar, dragging the RaiKiri as he began to run across the Amphisbaena's body.
With brute force creating miracles, starting from the bloody hole, the sharp blade left a massive gash on the Amphisbaena's torso.
At the same time, the Dismantle was fully activated, and countless sword aura erupted inside the Amphisbaena's body with the blade as the core.
In just a few breaths, a series of dull cutting sounds echoed from the Amphisbaena's body.
Blood mist filled the air, and deafening roars resounded throughout the Water city.
Sensing the approach of death, the Amphisbaena put up a final resistance, its poison and the water intermingling to form hundreds of water spikes that bombarded the area where Cain was located.
Cain laughed loudly and took the hit without even dodging, continuing his charge across the Amphisbaena's body.
Poisonous spikes pierced Cain's body, but under the effects of Reverse Cursed Technique and Super-speed Regeneration, he completed regeneration in just an instant, and the toxins were countered by antibodies he had already analyzed.
The final counterattack was broken by Cain's unreasonable methods, and the Amphisbaena's strength began to plummet.
LV5, LV4, LV3...
The Spirit Devouring Barrier continued to exert its power, and Cain's movement speed grew faster and faster, until finally, the speed at which he dealt damage surpassed the Amphisbaena's healing rate.
With a mournful cry, the Amphisbaena reached its absolute limit, its body turning into black ash that scattered in the air, leaving behind a massive magic stone and a blue snakeskin.
At the same time, a beam of white light shot out from the swirling black ash and, drawn by the Spirit Devouring Barrier, flowed into Cain's body.
Visibly, Cain felt his physical fitness surge, gaining an all-around boost from the inside out.
"As expected, killing a BOSS gives a lot of experience."
Grabbing the magic stone and the snakeskin, Cain let out a sigh of emotion.
The bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish, high risk is followed by high reward. His harvest from this battle was at least ten or even nine times that of yesterday.
Of course, there was a price for doing this.
Invisibly, Cain could feel a massive malice enveloping him, and a sixth sense from deep within his soul kept signaling a warning, he had been targeted by the Dungeon.
If he used the Spirit Devouring Barrier again, the Dungeon might not even wait for him to devour souls before sending assassins specifically after him.
"It seems I can only go this far for now."
The Dungeon was not a dead thing, it was the source of all monsters, a special living entity with self-awareness that even the gods needed to treat with caution.
Continuously provoking the Dungeon to test its bottom line wasn't just courting death, it was seeking it.
Holding the loot dropped by the Amphisbaena, Cain returned to the edge of the pool and looked ahead.
It was time to greet the guests.
...
Re@d adv@nce ch@pters on p@t
guilt_free_daoist
Jo!n d!sc0rd I!nk in synops!s.
GIVE ME YOU POWER STONES.