The Fifteenth Floor

A couple of hours later

Kat wasn’t sure what to expect when the door to the fifteenth floor stairs opened up and they all passed through it. But a room filled with nothing but mist wasn’t one of them, that’s for sure.

“Make sure you report anything strange, whether sights or sounds,” Leon says, and Kat nods her head in response despite him not likely being able to see it through the thick mist.

She can’t shake the feeling that something is off about this mist though. The dungeon core – Fenrir – has never done anything for any reason as simple as ‘disrupt their vision’ so Kat really doesn’t believe that he’ll start now.

The group continues walking down the halls of the brand new floor – which appear to be in the form of some sort of castle dungeon. But they don’t find any monsters just yet. Just endless dungeon halls for as far as one can see through the mist.

Eventually Charles mutters, “Are there even any monsters on this floor?”

“Of course, there are,” Pallus answers from the center of our group. “It’s a dungeon floor. A boss floor no less.”

Right. There has to be monsters here.

And that is confirmed after a few more minutes pass and something suddenly dashes by the group, making everyone turn around at the blur of its passing.

“You saw that, right?” Kat asks, just to make sure.

She sees Rose next to her nodding her head, but the others are too far away in the mist to see clearly enough. So she just takes their silence as a yes.

Some sort of stealth monster that hides in the mist?

The monster in question passes by them once more. Then a third time. And on the fourth pass, is does something to Charles, making him grunt while almost dropping to a knee.

“What’s wrong?!” Leon asks, only to find Charles straightening up again and tightening his hold on his shield. “The bastard cut me in the leg!”

Kat frowns at that before narrowing her eyes and activating her skill Dark Vision to see through the mist.

Was wanting to save my mana and not have to waste it, but…

The frown on her face grows larger when she realizes the mana she’s using in the skill is slowly being drained away by the mist.

“Shit,” she says before calling out to the others, “the mist saps mana!”

Kat hears the others all curse as she tightens her grip on her knives and looks through the mist while her dark vision skill is still active. After narrowing her eyes and carefully looking around for a few seconds, her eyes soon lock on a pair of pitch black eyes that immediately move upon making eye contact with her.

The princess then jumps back right when the creature reaches her and swipes its bladelike arm at where she was standing before Rose – who had been keeping an eye on her – lets an arrow loose straight at the creature. Then after the arrow strikes it in the shoulder, it rushes away without wasting any time. But Kat can’t help but notice it moving a little slower now.

Slow enough that the others can apparently see it even without her dark vision, so the creature is killed the next time it tries to attack. And after killing it, Kat kneels down next to it, briefly noting Leon doing the same as they examine the corpse.

The creature has a humanoid form and is about a meter in height, with blackish-gray skin and blades in the place of arms. Obviously a type of voice creature judging by the strange, almost alien form of the creature.

“This floor is going to be annoying,” Leon mutters, and Kat can’t help but nod her head in agreement.

“Very annoying,” she says with a frown.

Leon stands up straight before Kat follows. He then says to the group, “Looks like this boss floor is going to be filled with monsters hiding in the mist. And the mist itself,” he pauses to look at Kat, who nods her head, “appears to drain mana from active spells and skills.”

“A pain is what this floor is,” Pallus mutters in response, and Jake and Charles both nod their heads in response.

Although Kat can’t help but notice the intrigued look on Rose’s face. So when they continue moving forward through the hall, she walks up to her and asks, “What’s up with you?”

Rose looks at her through the mist before facing forwards again and saying, “I’m just wondering how much we can earn from reporting these new monsters.”

Kat blinks in surprise.

Of course, she’s thinking about money…

The princess moves back to her spot in the formation again as the group continues making their way through the floor. But eventually they find themselves at the open door of what appears to be a prison cell.

“Definitely dungeon-like,” Leon mutters, and Kat can’t help but nod in agreement.

Before passing through the door, Kat narrows her eyes and looks through the cell for anything suspicious. But after not finding anything obvious in the cell, she nods her head to Leon and says, “Nothing there yet.”

The monsters probably won’t spawn until we walk into the cell. And I’m willing to bet the door will close behind us as well.

“Should we try it?” Leon asks the group, deciding to make it a group decision. But everyone quickly nods their heads and voices their confirmation. “Alright.” He then turns back to the door and says, “Then make sure you’re ready.”

They all nod again even though most of them are behind him, and he can’t see them.

Kat tightens her grip on her weapons but doesn’t prepare any spells since the mist would only start draining the mana in them. But she does make sure that she is ready to prepare a spell at any moment.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the others doing the very same before they all walk through the door, with it closing behind them.