ed his guard. Schnee and Filma rushed towards Trypophobia.

Using the Movement-type Martial skill 【Waterbolt】, the two could move underwater with extreme speed, barely feeling the water resistance, and arrived close to the monster in no time.

“It’s too late to get desperate.”

“Give up already!”

Schnee’s left hand softly held the hilt of her 『Blue Moon』, its blade now wrapped in what looked like a platinum snowstorm, while Filma held her 『Red Moon』, burning brightly in golden flames, over her shoulder.

“Take this.”

Schnee and Filma spoke at the same time.

As they did, Trypophobia’s body was cut apart by countless slashes, colored platinum and gold. A small snowstorm that could freeze even miasma and searing flames to burn it to cinders. These two opposites became one within Trypophobia.

Tetra-type composite skill, 【Divine Flame - Royal Frost Blade】.

This unique skill was activated by using Katana/Water and Flame/Sword combination skills at the same time. It was often used as finisher when battling bosses or powerful monsters.

Trypophobia, slashed again in four parts by the attack, fell to the ground, immobile. It was like time had stopped for the monster.

It was difficult to notice because of Trypophobia’s originally white color, but its whole body was now frozen. A few seconds after it touched the ground, golden flames erupted from its body. Divine flames with miasma purification properties enveloped the frozen Trypophobia.

Different from 【Ignitior Red】, which only burned its target, 【Divine Flame - Royal Frost Blade】’s flames did not leave even a speck of ash.

When the fire had vanished, leaving nothing in its wake, Tiera’s chant became louder.

In response, light started appearing from the spots where the Trypophobias were. They were larger than the ones that had leaked from the monsters’ bodies during the fighting.

historical

The globes of light were initially very few, but quickly increased in quantity. They formed a sort of river of light in the air, which started flowing upwards, towards the surface of the water.

“Hah..now..it should be..okay..”

“Those were the freed souls?”

“Yes. There’s no one left here anymore.”

Shin waited for Tiera to recover her breath, looking at the lights floating away.

The lights passed through the ceiling of the Castle of the Depths and were not visible anymore.

“So that is..how souls shine?”

“Yes, exactly. But their true glow is much stronger.”

Tiera said that after being imprisoned for so long, they had probably grown weaker.

The brilliance of the ancestors’ souls, which Tiera had felt during her service as Priestess of the World Tree, was much warmer and brighter than what Shin’s party had just witnessed.

“Okay, we’ve taken care of the bosses and all, but is the entrance to the dungeon still there?”

While they waited for Tiera to recover, Shin inspected the location that the Trypophobias were guarding.

【Analyze】 had displayed the monsters’ names in an unusual way, so he thought that there might be something left.

“Is that a gem?”

The first thing he noticed was a gem the same size as the one of the non-standard monster he had fought in Bayreuth, the Skullface Lord.

The gem’s color, a very deep blue, showed that it belonged to the water element. Even after appraising it, he could only learn that it belonged to the highest Unique grade, and nothing else.

“Did you learn anything?”

“No, it doesn’t seem to be unusual in any way. This gem too, as material it’s something that I’ve seen before.”

Shin couldn’t find any drops besides the gem where the Trypophobias were. Different from the game era, they did not drop any weapons or materials. Just in case, he inspected the floor too, but could not find anything of note.

Shin decided to inspect the throne with Schnee. If it was still as he remembered, the entrance to the dungeon should have been there.

“There should be a switch behind the throne..here it is.”

Shin found a small gap in a part of the throne. He checked if there were any traps, then pushed the gap deeper inside.

With the sound of stones grinding against each other, the throne and a part of the floor began moving to the side, revealing stairs going downwards. The passage was so narrow that Shibaid could barely fit in it.

“We found the path leading underground. Are you ready?”

“Yes, I didn’t use that much energy anyway, I’m okay.”

Tiera’s HP and MP had both completely recovered. Her complexion wasn’t bad either, so Shin concluded that she wasn’t faking it.

“OK then, let’s go.”

The party finally set foot in the Castle of the Depths’ dungeon.

Schnee led the formation, followed by Shibaid, Filma, Tiera, and Shin. Yuzuha and Kagerou walked alongside Tiera.

After 5 minutes of descending the narrow stairs, the group arrived in what resembled a natural cave. The width of the corridor increased enough to make it possible for 3 members to fight side by side.

“Without 【Night Vision】, we wouldn’t be able to see even one mel ahead here.”

Tiera spoke while looking at the corridor. She had removed her goggles to see how much would be normally visible.

The miasma underground was thicker than above. To be safe, the group took another dose of the miracle drug.

“There are less monsters than expected, but is that normal when the miasma infection progresses?”

Filma wondered out loud after the group had repelled several monster attacks.

“Dungeon monsters can’t exactly reproduce, after all. Either new ones aren’t born, or they turned into Chimeras, I guess?”

Shin answered while searching the surroundings for any presence. It was just a theory, as there was the possibility for the monsters to be gathered in the lower floors, but Shin felt that it wasn’t too different from normal dungeons.

“In any case, let’s not lower our guards.”

Shibaid spoke as he raised his shield and halberd to repel monsters that had charged towards the group.

The path had reached a crossroads and the monsters had attempted a pincer attack on the party.

The monsters that Shibaid knocked away were mackerel pike-like monsters with heads morphed into iron lumps, called Magnum Fish. Its level ranged from 600 to 650 and its greatest characteristic was its high speed. Many players had experienced receiving large damage by their charge attacks the first time they fought this monster.

Magnum Fish had low defenses on all body parts other than their heads, so if the first strike was dodged or blocked, they became easy to neutralize. If the charge attack struck, however, rear guard Jobs with low defenses, such as Mages or Hunters, risked being knocked out in one blow.

“I-I didn’t even see them..”

“That’s what they call a trap for first timers.”

Shin had also been hit and sent spinning in mid-water his first time.

“With the skill 【Insight】, you can get a hunch that it’s coming though.”

“I barely have any skills that reinforce the senses..”

Tiera had learned several skills, but they still counted up to less than a dozen. In order to avoid Magnum Fish attacks, she would have to somehow guess their trajectory or take cover in a place with many objects to use as protection. If such methods didn’t work, she could only rely on her intuition.

“Do not fret. As long as we stand, no monster will ever touch you.”

“That’s right, you know you’re in good hands with us around.”

In a narrow corridor like the one the group was exploring, attacks could only come from determined directions. Shibaid and Filma, the front guard, would not let anything pass them in such a situation.

“I will take the lead then.”

Schnee, using her trap detection skills, examined the surroundings as she led the party forward.

They were still in the upper floors, but Castle of the Depths was still a high-level dungeon. Because it was located underwater as well, the group had to proceed with caution.

The biggest difference between dungeons above ground and underwater ones was the type of traps present.

The whole passageway was filled with water, so it was difficult to dodge if the ceiling opened, sucking the players in, or poisonous liquids were scattered all around. Sometimes it was also necessary to use the traps to go forward, so underwater dungeons had generally higher levels of difficulty than their above ground counterparts.

“No problem, it seems. Let’s go.”

Shin talked to Schnee via Mind Chat. On the way, they found a trap that would freeze the water in the passageway for a set time, and Tiera groaned “How are you supposed to dodge that..?”

Any attacking monsters were crushed by Shibaid and Filma, as they had said they would. Usually Shibaid would attract the monsters’ attention, luring them in one location, where Filma would cut them down all together.

『Red Moon』’s flames did not lose any power even underwater, thanks to 【Enchant - Mana Fire】.

What appeared to be roaring flames actually functioned just as a visual scare. They became effective only when they hit the opponent, slashing and scorching them.

Its effectiveness did not disappear after a set time, but after a certain number of uses, a condition perfect for Filma, who could K.O. any monster in a single stroke.

“Looks like it’s a dead end ahead.”

Schnee had returned from her inspection and mapping, shaking her head.

Most high level or high profile dungeons had already been considerably mapped in the game era, but here, Castle of the Depths’ map was -as expected- completely blank.

Because of that, the group was forced to re-do the mapping all over again.

The Castle of the Depths was a wide dungeon, so even 【Magic Sonar】 could only scan half of one floor.

When the path split, Shin and Schnee parted ways to explore both ways but, even then, it took time.

“Looks like it’ll be impossible to clear this in one sitting.”

“Yeah..well, normally it takes a few days to map a dungeon, so doing it as quickly as we did in Hinomoto is actually unusual.”

Shin remembered how tough things were in the game era and reassured Filma, mentioning that things had gone almost too smoothly until now.

In the last dungeons cleared by the party, Depths of Hellfire and Cadaver Realm, they had achieved their goals in one day, but those dungeons usually required several days to clear them.

“Should we set up a proper camp somewhere? In a place like this, I wouldn’t want to just sleep in a tent, honestly.”

“I understand all too well not wanting to rest in a place filled with miasma like this. If we could teleport and leave it’d be very different, but..”

Shin had attempted before, but both mid-level teleport crystals used to escape dungeons and high-level ones used to leave from special areas, such as event fields, did not work at all.

Shin had always tried in dungeons tainted by miasma, but was not sure if miasma was the reason or there was something else.

“Guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. Gather here, everybody.”

Teleport crystals transported all players and monsters in a five mels radius from the user. In order to prevent the player from fleeing via teleport when they were in a pinch, monsters were transported too.

Even if a player was registered in the party but was outside the range when the teleport crystal was used, they would be left behind.

Shin made sure that everyone was within range and activated the teleport. The destination was the entrance to the Castle of the Depths, before the gate where he had placed the Three Sea Beasts’ cards.