in2ebook Chapter 244 Exploring the White Palace
Chapter 244 Exploring the White Palace
Chapter 244 Exploring the White Palace
The thirty-seventh floor, the white palace.
A vast army of obsidian soldiers and skeletal sheep lurking in the darkness surrounded Roy and his group, filling the passageway in countless numbers.
The obsidian soldiers had high magic resistance, so Roy didn't use the Elven Holy Sword's special effect "Heavenly Burning," but instead killed these monsters one by one.
Roy's skills, honed under the tutelage of the goddess Astraea, were on full display.
Surrounded by a large number of monsters, countless attacks came from different directions, bringing with it a sense of urgent crisis that made one's hair stand on end.
Roy's expression remained unchanged.
Intuitive!
In the darkness, Roy's perception reached a terrifying level, allowing him to observe the entire world from all angles. Even with his eyes closed, the surrounding environment and situation would automatically appear in his mind.
Amidst the relentless attacks, Roy found the optimal solution. His movements were incredibly subtle, each step perfectly avoiding all the attacks.
The powerful attacks from the obsidian soldiers and skeletal sheep grazed past his clothes and armor.
Bang!
Faced with an attack that was impossible to dodge, Roy lightly swung his elven holy sword, the cold sword light tearing through everything and killing the monster along with the attack.
The elven holy sword was so sharp and indestructible that it shattered the obsidian soldiers, leaving a perfectly smooth cut. Numerous monsters were reduced to ashes, dropping magic stone fragments and materials.
The god-like skills taught by the goddess Astraea, aided by intuition, were brought to their full potential, and Roy displayed them perfectly.
Its prominence is no less than that of LV.5 Ryu.
Ryu, Tione, Tiona, and the others couldn't help but be drawn to him. Their beautiful pupils narrowed slightly. The boy's figure was simply an art of skill, and every movement exuded a subtle charm.
"We can't fall behind!"
"Follow the leader and crush them!"
Roy's battle greatly inspired everyone, overwhelming the deeper monsters in terms of morale.
Ryu's skills are on par with Roy's.
Tione and Tiona, on the other hand, rely on pure brute force, which is characteristic of Amazons. It's impossible for them to learn the refined techniques of Roy and Ryu; they prefer the visceral feeling of punches landing.
The giant orc was blown apart by Tione's punch. Tiona's large twin blades swept across, each attack delivered with full force, consuming a great deal of energy.
While killing monsters, Roy was also constantly using the Elven Holy Sword to cut open the stone walls, causing the dungeon to prioritize repairing the walls rather than spawning monsters. This rule also applies to the Deeper Realms.
But the deeper layers are still the deeper layers.
The level of danger is not the same as that of the middle and lower classes.
The fact that no monsters will spawn in this area does not mean that monsters from afar will not come to it. Doing this in the deep realm can only slow down the encounter with monsters, and cannot provide a lot of rest time.
The damaged walls gradually calmed down.
A dozen minutes later, Roy and his group had cleared out all the monsters in the area, but no new monsters had arrived yet, and the magic stone fragments had piled up into a small mountain.
The five "Skeleton Sheep" masks or leathers and ten "Obsidian Soldier" core stones for the expedition mission are already complete, and there's even more to go.
Everyone got a short rest.
Roy asked, "How are you feeling?"
"You're not injured!"
"My mental strength is about 80%, and my physical strength is about 60%!"
"Sixty percent mental strength, fifty percent physical strength!"
Ryu, Tione, Tiona, Daphne, Cassandra, and Lily answered in turn.
Apart from Ryu, the others were not in good condition. Even Tione and Tiona, who were at LV.4, were sweating profusely and panting heavily.
The monsters in the deep are irrational, but numerous, and their individual abilities are generally superior to theirs. If it weren't for their skills and powerful weapons, five or six monsters could put them in a difficult situation.
Daphne, Cassandra, and Lily were breathing rapidly, their little faces showing signs of exhaustion.
Roy forged several high-quality magic swords and gave them to Lily. When monsters suddenly jumped out of the wall and the others couldn't come to the rescue in time, Lily also had to use the magic swords to kill the monsters.
Cassandra continuously cast healing spells, and although the two were in the center of the group and experienced relatively few dangers, they were not entirely without them.
Roy glanced around and knew what to do. "Tione, Tiona, Cassandra, and Lily, take a ten-minute break. Daphne and Ryu will be on guard!"
"Huff! Huff! Huff!"
The four girls lay on the ground, closed their eyes, and fell asleep instantly, their breathing becoming even—a skill that Liu had spent a considerable amount of time training them to master.
After activating her skills, magic, and abilities, Daphne's durability is higher than that of Tione and Tiona, and her condition is relatively better.
Roy leaned against the wall, closing his eyes to rest. He had intuition; this skill was passive and activated 24/7. Even in deep sleep, he would instantly sense if someone tried to ambush him.
Reliable, safe, and efficient – that's the right way to explore dungeons.
The kind of individualism that exists in hero stories, like "The Mighty" Otto, who goes on expeditions alone, can run up to the 50th floor, fight the floor master one-on-one, and then return to the surface. But this is an exception, and most people can't do it.
Clang!
Before ten minutes had passed, the monster reappeared, and the sounds of weapons clashing violently rang out again, waking Tiony and the others, who continued fighting.
At Roy's command, the team advanced; they couldn't afford to be worn down by the monsters here.
While killing monsters, Ryu was also drawing a map. Starting from the thirty-seventh floor, a route leading to the third circular wall appeared on the paper.
They walked straight along the wall, squeezed through the gaps, and passed through the fifth and fourth circular walls. A large, flawless white circular wall appeared before them.
Each of the large circular walls in the "White Palace" has a slightly different color, except for the third circular wall, which is located in the middle and is pure white and clean.
This was also the location of Roy and his team's last mission on their expedition: collecting dust from the Third Round Wall.
These white dust particles have significant research value and are also important raw materials for making bleach, dyes, and other products. The guild buys them at high prices.
Roy swung his elven holy sword, shaving off a piece of stone from the wall and storing it in his spatial ring. He could then grind as much dust as he wanted.
Only Roy can play like that.
This circular wall is extremely hard; it's difficult to pry the stone off with ordinary tools. Adventurers are reluctant to use their equipment, as they would lose more dust than they could earn back if they damaged it. It's not worth it, and losing your armor in the depths is a death sentence.
This material is in such an awkward situation.
Therefore, the guild's requirement is to collect as much dust as possible by scraping.
Roy's elven holy sword was completely immune to damage.
With that, the guild's expedition material collection was completed, and the group breathed a sigh of relief.
"Captain, shall we continue exploring?" Tiona asked with a sunny smile and a relaxed expression.
All eyes turned to Roy.
Seeing the girls' eager expressions, Roy smiled and went along with their suggestion, "Going back the way we came isn't very interesting. Let's take a different route back to the entrance of the 36th floor and draw another map while we're at it."
"very nice!"
A cheer erupted from the crowd.
If it were any other clan, they would definitely leave as quickly as possible after completing the expedition.
There are many ways to make money in dungeons, and valuable materials are everywhere. For example, in the Labyrinth of Water, many materials are worth millions or even tens of millions of Fali. There is no need to stay in the deepest levels and risk your life. The strength of the monsters and the unexpected situations here are incomparable to those in the middle and lower levels.
Roy and his companions, however, were different. They focused on honing their abilities and leveling up. Roy never forgot his goal: to conquer the dungeon!
If you can't even conquer the 37th floor, how can you talk about clearing the entire dungeon! Of course, Roy also has to take care of the other members of the team; exploration isn't about courting death.
The group continued on their way.
Along the wall, kill the monsters, pass through the narrow gaps, and return safely to the outside of the fifth circular wall.
The entrance to the thirty-sixth floor appeared ahead.
No one was injured, and their overall condition remained above 50%. With a Level 5 and a pseudo-Level 5 leader, the team was complete, possessing strong combat power and excellent command. It had all the advantages of a powerful team, so this result was expected.
Rather, with their lineup, without encountering the floor master or entering particularly dangerous areas, if they were to experience a near-death experience, the people of Orario would be laughing their heads off.
Traveling back and forth along the third circular wall on the thirty-seventh floor, it's conservatively estimated that at least a thousand monsters were killed, all of them level 3.
A level 4 monster.
As a training exercise, it's sufficient.
Go back and update the stats. Everyone will gain at least two to three hundred more attributes, with lower levels receiving more.
Everyone wore varying degrees of joy on their faces, and the sunny and cheerful Tiona chatted with the others.
The closer they got to the entrance, the more monsters there were, but Roy and the others had gotten used to it.
Deal with these peripheral monsters with ease.
At this moment, at the passage leading back to the thirty-sixth floor, a figure draped in a wide black robe appeared, half of his body hidden in a corner, secretly spying.
"All personnel on alert!"
When that person's gaze swept over, Roy, who possessed the Intuition skill, noticed the abnormality earlier than Ryu, who was at LV.5. He stopped in his tracks, turned his head sharply, and stared at that person with a sharp gaze like lightning.
As soon as Roy's deep voice rang out, the girls' casual chatter and playfulness vanished instantly. Their faces turned serious, and they returned to their seats, ready for action.
The group stood back to back, their expressions wary.
During their deep exploration, unexpected events occurred frequently. This was already the umpteenth time they had encountered such an event, and they had long since developed a stress response, switching freely between playful and combat states while remaining vigilant about their surroundings.
Following Roy's gaze, the girls also noticed the dark figure at the entrance to the 36th floor.
The man seemed surprised by Roy's keen senses and was startled. He darted away like a mouse and quickly disappeared from sight.
"Commander, I'll go and bring him back!" Theone clenched his fists and volunteered.
Roy immediately stopped Tiony, "Don't go. It might be a diversionary tactic to separate us. There's something strange about it."
Roy frowned and his nose twitched.
Ryu also sensed something.
Unfortunately, there were no orcs with a keen sense of smell in the group, so they couldn't immediately determine what the faint scent was coming from.
Roy felt a sense of familiarity; he was certain he had come across similar items somewhere before.
When Roy's gaze swept over Tiona's large twin blades, his pupils dilated in shock, and he shouted, "It's a Fire Stone! Everyone, get to the corners and take cover!"
It took Roy three seconds to finally understand the source of the smell; he had been in contact with it all this time.
Firestone! It's an excellent fuel for forging equipment. With a little modification, it can be turned into a powerful explosive, but the taste will also change, so Roy didn't react immediately.
boom!!
Before Roy could finish speaking, a violent explosion occurred above the circular wall, followed by a dazzling burst of light and a deafening sound.
The circular wall shattered, and huge stones rained down like rain, blotting out the sky and crashing down heavily.
At Roy's prompting, everyone reacted swiftly, scrambling into the corner of the round wall, similar to hiding in a corner of a house during an earthquake.
Ryu's figure flashed by like a golden phantom, carrying Cassandra and Lily, the weakest members of the group, to a hidden corner.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Unlike the third circular wall, the fifth circular wall could be blasted open with explosives. The continuous roar and the ruins formed by the stone fragments buried Roy and the others.
After a long while, everything returned to calm.
Roy and the others climbed out one after another, pushing aside the several tons of rocks pressing down on them with a force comparable to that of a heavy excavator.
Adventurers are all genuine humanoid monsters.
Roy asked, "Is everything alright?"
"fine."
Liu replied, while Cassandra and Lily behind him were wrapped tightly in Goliath cloths.
"Think you can solve us with a landslide? You're even more naive than Tiona!" Daphne dusted herself off and activated the skill "Laurel Reincarnation." When she was near death or her stamina was depleted, her durability would be greatly increased, and her skin would gleam like the surface of a laurel tree, harder than steel.
The hard rocks hit her, but instead of breaking, the landslide only caused her some abrasions.
Tiona pouted. She wasn't naive; she just didn't like thinking about complicated things.
"Damn it, it must be that guy from earlier, I'm going to kill him!" Tione roared in fury.
The others also looked furious, including Liu, whose expression was usually calm and collected. Her sky-blue eyes turned icy. Being ambushed in the dungeon was a fatal enmity!
Let alone deliberately using firestones to create an explosion, even just attracting a single monster would be enough to enrage everyone. It concerns everyone's lives; one should not only disregard oneself but also worry about one's teammates.
Roy's eyes were cold, but his expression was calm. "Cassandra, how many more times can you use this magic?"
Cassandra assessed the situation and answered in a low voice, "My mental strength is around 40%, which should allow me to use healing magic three times and dispelling magic once."
Roy nodded. Cassandra's magic is a group effect, which consumes a lot of mental energy. It's quite good that she can still use it so many times. We can't expect everyone to be like her, breaking through the limits of their attributes.
"Use a healing spell to heal everyone's wounds first," Roy said.
"Yes, Commander!"
Cassandra raised her staff and began to chant, "One Light of Thor!"
As the voice faded, a vibrant green light appeared on everyone's bodies, brimming with life, and the wounds caused by the falling rocks were completely healed.
Liu looked on with approval; since Cassandra joined the team, she had rarely used Noah's Heal.