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Dungeon, 3rd Floor

After killing a few more dozens of adventurers down on the fourth floor, she had the luck of encountering another party at the top of the staircase to the third floor. It was as if the third floor wanted to give her a welcoming party.

"Monster in sight! Ready your position!" A man in the group instructed.

Shalltear looked on her targets with a smile.

They were a disciplined, well-trained party.

They positioned themselves ready to take her on. There were two warriors in the front line, one ranger in the middle and one magic caster in the rear.

Four of them in total, and although they were surprised at the sight of Shalltear as she emerged from the stairs of the fourth floor, they calmly went on alert, a movement born of accumulated experience.

"That's gooooooood~"

Although it was not bad to slaughter weak humans, stronger opponents like this were way more interesting to kill.

Their cute show of resistance was the last straw that broke the back of Shalltear's wavering self-control.

"Yeeeehaaaaaahaaahahaha!"

With a cry like she had torn free of her bindings, Shalltear stepped forward.

*Splash*

She pierced one of the frontliners' shield, shattered his armor, ripped straight through his skin, muscle and bone, and closed around the heart which had been beating just a moment ago. And then, she tore it out.

As she stood over the body of the collapsed warrior, the panicked adventurers took a few steps back in fear of the calamity that stood in front of them.

The monster's mouth that opened to the height of her ears was in a semi-circular shape, and the two canines within it were long enough that they reached her chin. Her brilliant scarlet eyes were the color of blood, and she had claws that were about ten centimeters long.

Two of them turned to look at the third man in the back without taking their eyes off Shalltear.

"What do we do now, boss?"

"Retreat's going to be hard! It's too fast! Attack!"

""YES!""

As they answered in unison, they began their counterattack.

The remaining frontliner charged in Shalltear's direction with his sword pointing directly at her, ready to pierce right through her body.

"Geeeeet looooooosst!" Shalltear spoke in a loud, sinister voice.

*Splash*

She casually swiped her right hand, but this careless blow was enough to behead the sword-wielding warrior, sending him to the ground in a spray of blood.

While the magic caster began chanting something she could only guess was the preparation to a magic spell, the other ranger that wielded a bow and arrows made five consecutive shots that bounced off Shalltear's body, including one going right to the head, which would've been fatal to any human being.

Yet, the monster in front of them remained standing and the arrows simply bounced off its body. She laughed, and a snarl appeared on her face. Such low-level attacks could not affect her in any way.

"Im… Impossible…" Was the only word the archer managed to mutter.

*Splash*

In the blink of an eye, the archer ended up impaled as Shalltear pierced through his abdomen and slowly moved her hand upwards, slicing the man in half.

The magic caster finished is chanting his spell and took a few steps forward.

Shalltear didn't mind it. While she was in a blood frenzy, she remained curious about what would that man throw at her, so she endured the urge to slaughter him before he finished his spell.

"Take this, monster! [Pilar of Flames]!" He practically shouted, throwing all he got against this powerful foe that had ended the lives of his companions.

A magic circle formed on the ground beneath Shalltear's feet, and as the name of the spell suggests, a huge pillar of flames erupted from the magic circle and covered her in intense fire.

"Ahahaaahahaahaahahaa!"

Shalltear laughed so hard that anyone who was currently on the third floor would no doubt hear her. She didn't mind it though. She was quite confident in her strength to defeat any foe that dared to stand in her way.

The fire attack didn't hurt her at all, yet this was nonetheless the strongest attack she had yet to see ever since being sent into the dungeon. The attack reminded her of one of her own spells, [Vermilion Nova], but by far weaker. The man's spell also required chanting a whole paragraph, so it was quite inconvenient.

She jumped on the magic caster and grabbed onto him in the air, her long tongue caressing the man's body and then slowly encircling his neck. And then, she tightened. The pressure around his neck made the man choke.

"Guwaaaaaar!"

She was surprised when he managed to squeeze out a cry of pain while chocking.

After hearing the magic caster's cries, Shalltear was quite pleased with herself, and decided to grant him mercy and end his torment. Her large mouth opened and swallowed his whole head.

*Splash*

Tearing the man's head off, blood spread everywhere in the dark room of the dungeon.

If only Shalltear hadn't been busy tormenting this group of combatants before killing them in the most gruesome ways possible, she would've surely noticed the countless adventurers that bore witness to her massacre earlier and ran away as fast as they could to warn everyone about it.

"Thaaaaaaat waaaaas fuuuuuuuuuun~"

Shalltear grinned evilly as she stood within the silent hall of the cave which was now devoid of any movement.

'This should be good enough for now.' She told herself before returning to her usual beautiful form.

Her crusade was over.

Putting her blood-coloured armour with the pair of wings back on along with the Remove Undead Abilities Ring and her Spuit Lance, Shalltear looked completely normal, as if nothing happened a few minutes ago.

Now that she was composed, she could think clearly. She was currently on the third floor and had caused quite a bit of a commotion. Fortunately, it seems that no one saw her transform; they had already left to warn many, many more.

'I should perhaps move away from this gruesome scenery.'

She wasn't dumb enough to remain standing in the middle of this bloodbath, so she quickly left the staircase between the fourth and third floors, going upwards and ran through the corridors.

Of course, she could simply kill anyone that attempted to engage with her quite easily, but that would draw in too much attention to her case. If a few stronger adventurers were warned, she might have to take them seriously and reveal her beautiful humanoid-looking form. If that form was to be revealed as the same monster that caused the previous carnage, she was certain to be hunted down and recognized wherever she went. That wouldn't be a wise choice as long as she didn't know what lied beyond the dungeon.

When she was already far away on the third floor and from the bloodbath in the stairs, her hearing picked up on the sound of countless footsteps quickly moving in said direction.

It wasn't just a few adventurer parties; it was almost a small army squadron numbering in the fifties.

'Somebody really did see me and warned everyone else about it…' Shalltear was quite irritated. The probabilities of someone snitching while she was busy playing with her preys were quite high. Even more so during a blood frenzy when she pretty much looses her ability to think properly. That was a careless mistake on her part, but she at least managed to get away, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

"It's this way!" A male voice shouted. It was strong enough to resonate through the entire floor. It was fortunate that Shalltear had already moved on from her previous location.

Realising that the bloodbath could be used as a distraction, she moved around the army of adventurers and made her way to the staircase to the second floor.

It wasn't as difficult as finding her way on the 5th and 4th floors since the direction from which the adventurers came from gave her an approximate idea of where to go. It was almost ridiculous that Shalltear had trouble in the labyrinth with skills such as these at her disposal.

'I might eventually get out afterall… I'm curious of what lies above the dungeon. Perhaps a kingdom ruled by some demon king. Or one of the supreme beings' domain'.