When they stepped inside the castle, they immediately were stunned by how empty it was. Not in the sense that there was not any furniture or that no one was living it. It would be more accurate to say that they were shocked by the hollowness of the building.

There were no walls, no rooms, no floors. It was as if what they had seen outside was a massive vacuous shell. Any sound they made would echo for more than five seconds and Rakna scowled from how loud it was to him and his hearing.

“It’s massive,” Flavia said quietly as she looked up directly to the roof of the castle.

“And massively empty… except those things again,” Allan muttered as he stared at the scattered statues. Some of them were dozens of meters away, others were right next to them, and the rest was attached to the walls or ceiling.

“Do you think these ones are also alive?” Evelyn asked as she observed the statues. “They haven’t made any movement even when we’re this close…”

“I also don’t feel anything from them,” Rakna muttered. “They aren’t like the ones outside. But one thing is puzzling me. I can’t sense anything from them but I have the weird urge to not approach them,” he said and took a closer look at the statues.

There were all sorts of them; animals, men, women, children… However, they all had one thing in common. Every single one of them had a pair of feathered wings. Rakna decided to use Appraisal on one of them and something that he didn’t expect was returned to him.

❮ ◈ ❯

Appraisal Failed.

Target is protected from all analysis.

❮ ◈ ❯

“What does this-!” Rakna paused as he coincidentally noticed something. His eyes widened as he saw one of the child statues to his right. He had passed by this one earlier. He knew for a fact that it had been looking at the wall. But now… it was staring right at him.

“{Wait, those are!?}” Higure suddenly shouted. “{Be careful! All of those are Skulking Angels!}”

“Skulk what?” Allan who had also heard her turned around to look at Rakna. The latter, in the split of a second, sensed something moving. On pure instinct, he flash-stepped behind the blond and readied his glaive but he froze on the spot when he just saw a stone lion with an open mouth as if it was roaring.

“Wha-? That thing wasn’t here a second ago,” Allan said and just as the others were about to come closer, Higure spoke again.

“{Don’t gather! Continue looking around at the statues! Be sure to have the most possible in your line of sight at every moment!}”

Everyone shuddered at her grave tone and followed her commands. When they turned back to where they were looking a second ago, they stepped back in fright when they saw that all of them had gotten closer. Some of them were openly baring fangs at them while others were taking poses that seemed natural.

“[Call of Fangs,]” Rakna muttered and a pack of shadow wolves appeared around him. “Keep an eye on the statues,” he ordered and all of them dispersed to follow the instruction. They also didn’t forget about the ones that were above them, of which some were already on their way down.

Higure sighed audibly. “{Good call… I forgot you had that skill. It’s perfect to deal with them.}”

“I only did it because you said to keep them in sight. Now could you please tell me what Skulking Angels even are?” Rakna responded.

“{I can answer that if you allow me,}” Fray joined in. “{These monsters are a dangerous breed of predators. Whenever someone lays eyes on them, their physiology will make them unable to move or be anything other than stone. However, when they are not being looked at… they become the deadliest hunters conceivable. Lethal, fast, and stealthy.}”

“{The worst about them is that they are nearly indestructible when they are looked at,}” Higure added with a click of her tongue. “{Even I would be hard-pressed to kill them while they’re locked in by their nature. The fully grown ones are terrors. Thankfully, the ones here are fledglings. If not, even a party of level 500 Hosts would not come out of here alive.}”

“Okaaay… I’m not feeling this one,” Allan remarked nervously.

“What about when they are moving?” Nyx asked. “They can’t be indefinitely indestructible, right?”

“{You’re right. When they are moving, they become organic and vulnerable. You can kill them as long as you don’t look at them. Though, they are disgustingly resistant to magic. Not on Tyran’s level but darn close to it. Also, as Fray said, they’re fast and silent. Other than Rakna and possibly Nyx, I don’t think anyone else could sense their approach without using their eyes.}”

“So, what do we do? I guess we need to destroy them to continue the Dungeon, right?” Allan said and pointed at the shadow wolves. “Rak, how long can you keep those guys?”

“Ten minutes. But I can summon more of them. It’s no problem as long as I keep them weak. The cost is outweighed by my regeneration.”

“Phew, at least we’re safe. Why don’t we just leave for now?”

“It’s locked,” Evelyn’s voice immediately countered. “I tried earlier. The entrance is locked.”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know, kick it down?”

“{That would be unlikely. Dungeons are protected by the System. If you wish to go through that door… prepare something at least as powerful as ten nuclear warheads,}” Fray said.

Allan’s face twitched. “That bad?”

“{Yes.}”

“Well, I have an idea,” Rakna suddenly said. “And it doesn’t involve fighting.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and he’s the key,” he said and pointed at Ganymede with his thumb.

“{Hm, do you want to drown them?}” Higure assumed. “{While it could technically be possible for them to die from lack of air when they are not looked at, how do you expect to make them stay underwater enough for them to drown? Ganymede still has the water from Fray’s oasis, even if it was originally a product of Tale Magic, but it’s still not enough to fill this entire place.}”

“I’m not going to drown them,” Rakna retorted and waved at everyone. “Gather in a circle,” he said and the party did as they were told. The shadow wolves also surrounded them while maintaining their watch over every part of the castle.

“Flavia, can you use your telekinesis to move them?” Rakna asked and she tried to lift one of the angels to no avail.

“{Their statue state is basically the same as messing around with causality. You’d need incredible control over all that is spatial and dimensional to move them. That would technically be possible with Space Magic, but the lady isn’t good enough for that yet.}”

“All right, plan B then,” Rakna uttered. “I’m going to dispel my wolves and you will close your eyes.”

“…is that an actual plan or a suicide plan?” Allan couldn’t help but ask.

“I need them to be closer to us. I can’t kill them all if some of them stay too high. As Higure said, I don’t have enough water to fill up the whole castle.”

“So, you do want to drown them.”

“Not exactly,” Rakna shook his head. “Ready?”

Allan sighed. “I guess I did say I would put my life in your hands back then.”

Flavia chuckled and nodded. “Me as well.”

“I obviously concur,” Evelyn said without hesitation.

“I trust you,” Nyx stated coolly.

Pronos and Tyran made a noise simultaneously as they nodded at their master.

“In that case…” Rakna droned and waved his hand, dismissing the wolves. Since they were in a circle formation, very few angels could come at them and the two pets made sure to look at those above them.

But even then, they sometimes left blind spots and Rakna could feel something move around as if an invisible enemy was preparing to attack. He erected a barrier around them and Evelyn quietly reinforced it with her own.

“I will countdown from three. At my signal, you open your eyes again and I’ll summon a new batch of wolves. Get it?” He asked and they nodded silently. “3, 2, 1… now!”

They instantly closed their eyes and Ganymede similarly followed the order as well. Immediately after, Rakna felt something land on top of his barrier. It was really daunting; they were not making any sound that he could pick up on and he was barely able to tell they were moving thanks to pure instinct. If were they not in a barrier, probing in the air fluctuations might have worked as well.

Rakna and Evelyn nervously kept their eyes closed even when they could sense that something was attacking their barrier and clearly damaging them. The succubus was continuously putting more layers of defense while Rakna would recreate a new GHB every time they shattered.

When he deemed that enough time had passed, he summoned his wolves again and spoke up, “It should be enough.” His words caused everyone to open their eyes and they freaked out when they saw the angels literally clawing their way through the barriers.

There were at least a hundred of them swarming their location and several had their arms sticking through the barrier and one of them was even a few centimeters from touching Rakna’s forehead.

“Dispel the barriers,” he told with a small sigh and Evelyn complied. As for his GHB, he flattened it and manipulated it so everyone could step on it. The wolves stayed on the ground to keep the angels in check as they ascended to the roof.

“It seems all of them are down there now,” Nyx commented as she inspected the walls and ceiling of the hollow castle. “It worked well.”

“{I am rather intrigued now,}” Fray made himself known. “{What are you planning to do?}”

“It’s not complicated,” Rakna replied and waved at Ganymede. “Flood this place until every angel has at least five meters of water above them. If you don’t have enough, take my mana.”

The star entity nodded, once again displaying a level of awareness, and spun the vase in his hands to direct it downward. Unlike earlier, the water abruptly came out as if a faucet had been opened in full. The pressure was very high and the castle was quickly being filled.

Fortunately, there had been enough water in Fray’s oasis to fill the majority of their objective and after around five minutes, all the angels had been put underwater and Rakna had had to spend an extra 100 MP to finish.

“Now…” He voiced and ate a mana pill. He channeled a huge chunk of mana to his hand and formed a miniature cold star above his palm. The others shivered at the drop in temperature while Rakna mentally controlled it to hover toward the water.

He made it stop just above the surface and a layer of thin ice was already starting to form. After injecting a bit more mana, he waved two of his fingers and the small star plunged underwater and instantly turned everything it passed through into ice.

Rakna managed to placed it right in the middle of the crowd of statues. After that, he looked on as the ice invaded that place at a high pace. He grunted and to the surprise of the others, he turned into his half-werewolf form to increase his mana output.

After a minute, half of the water was frozen while the sections that were the farthest from the cold star were being solidified at a much slower rate. Rakna dispelled the surviving wolves that were still gazing at the angels’ shadowy figures through the ice and beckoned the others.

“Stop looking at them.” They followed his words and he himself stopped observing the ice. When he did that, he heard and felt the ice being strained from the inside.

“{They are struggling,}” Higure commented. “{A normal being would have died in a few seconds from being that close to a star-powered gelling but considering their overall racial abilities… they will succumb in about half an hour.}”

Rakna clicked his tongue. “I won’t be able to hold on long enough,” he grumbled and turned into a full werewolf. He pulled out a few hearts from his storage. “I recommend you don’t look,” he told the others and wolfed down the preserved muscles. He didn’t want to risk the angels surviving if his magic ran out.

“I don’t know if I should feel amazed or grossed out,” Allan muttered to everyone as they spectated their friend turned werewolf bite into literal hearts to keep up with the drain, regardless of his warning. Evelyn now realized why he had asked her to turn around last time.

Pronos huffed at the blond with a grin. He had seen his master rip out beating hearts with his bare hand. This was nothing in comparison.

“…why is this reptile looking so smug whilst staring at me?”

Ultimately, about twenty-five minutes later…

❮ ◈ ❯

Lv.30 Skulking Angel killed.

Lv.29 Skulking Angel killed.

Lv.27 Skulking Angel killed.

…

Lv.30 Skulking Angel killed.

The targets are special-class monsters.

You have been rewarded 1000 Exp for astutely subjugating them.

Everyone else in the Party will be given 500 Exp.

Level up!

Level up!

+3 Free Points!

+0.2 STR, SPD, INT!

Requirement for level up updated.

Current progress: 154/460

---

You have completed the Dungeon’s First Floor!

❮ ◈ ❯