‘Hey, miss Alina. The Ancestors must’ve worked pretty hard on that door. It looked like they put a lot of effort into those decorations and such.’

‘That’s nothing to do with me. I want to move ahead as quickly as possible.’

The ether was palpably thick in the spacious hall beyond the ruined door. A definite aura that a floor boss had been here hung in the air, but the boss itself was nowhere to be seen. All that was there was an empty room and a set of stairs leading to the next floor.

‘Is that the stairs?’

Rururi asked, slightly bewildered.

‘Which would mean that we’ve reached the end of the first floor.’

Loewe replied.

‘Hmm. There’s no way Rufus’ party could’ve defeated the boss in such a short amount of time. Odd. I’ve never come across a floor that doesn’t have a boss before…’

Jade scratched his head, but staying here wouldn’t help them solve this mystery; they had to move on. Confused but determined, the party climbed the stairs to the second floor. Unlike the inexplicable first floor, with its disorderly scattering of columns, the second floor was a single, long corridor, flanked on either side by ornate, majestic stone pillars, evenly spaced and continuing all the way into the interior.

‘Strange. I can’t sense any—’

Jade suddenly stopped, his brows furrowed.

‘What’s the matter?’

Alina asked.

‘I think I just heard something.’

‘Really? I can’t hear a—’

Gyaaaaaaa!

Alina was interrupted by the distant scream of a man coming from the other end of the corridor.

Loewe and Rururi seemed to have heard it too.

‘Was that a scream?!’

Rururi asked.

‘That must’ve been Rufus’ party!’

Jade was already running towards the source of the scream, the others quickly following behind.

When they eventually reached what appeared to be the second floor boss room, the door was already half open. Jade rushed in first and checked the situation inside.

He was greeted by a shocking sight.

Three adventurers lay collapsed in a pool of blood inside a room where a huge magic circle was drawn on the floor. Judging by their equipment, they appeared to be the adventurers who had been standing behind Rufus earlier.

‘Rururi!’

Before she even heard Jade’s command, Rururi had already sprung into action, waving her rod and sending out a healing light. But instead of the light colliding with the collapsed men, it passed through their bodies in vain.

Her face stiffened and her spell-casting hand froze in mid-motion. Silently, she lowered her rod as she stared at the adventurers in horror and said:

‘They’re dead.’

****

Alina stopped, feeling herself unable to go any closer to their cold bodies. The stench of blood, a murky pool spreading through the darkness. The strong presence of death made her freeze in place.

This marked the second time that Alina had witnessed the death of acquainted adventurers. The first time was when Alina was still young and—

‘Miss Alina.’

Alina snapped back to attention when Jade called her name.

‘It’s better not to look.’

With those curt words, Jade turned over the body of one of the men lying face-down in the pool of blood. The man was clutching a broken metal targe; he was a tank, supposed to be the most well-defended of all party members. But there was a gaping wound in his abdomen, and it looked like he was killed with a single hit.

‘Straight through his shield, killing him instantly. That must’ve been a hell of an attack.’

‘It looks like they all died the same way.’

‘Right. Is this the work of the floor boss?’

While discussing the gruesome scene with Loewe, Jade examined the bodies one by one, but when he got to the third, he frowned.

‘No, wait. There’s one—’

‘Jade.’

Jade raised his head as Rururi called out his name.

‘Rufus isn’t among them.’

Like she said, there were only three bodies. On guard, the party cautiously scanned their surroundings. It did not take them long to find the missing party leader.

‘Rufes!’

There, in the shadow of a pillar, he sat, dazed. Streaks of blood painted his pallid face, and their was not a trace left of his earlier vigour.

‘What happened?’

Jade put his hand on Rufus’ shoulder and asked softly. After a long silence, Rufus slowly opened his mouth and whispered:

‘I don’t know.’

Jade’s expression grew even grimmer. Rufus was no less strong than the Blades when it came to combat strength. Clearly, the monster they encountered was a formidable opponent if it could put this man into such a stupor.

‘A humanoid monster suddenly appeared from that magic circle. It used a skill.’

‘Skill? A monster?!’

Jade raised his voice in shock. Skills are the exclusive domain of the human race. Humanoid or not, a monster using a skill was unheard of.

‘In any case, we should this place for the time being.’

Jade broke the heavy silence and rose to his feet.

‘There’s monsters about. Since there’s no floor boss, other monsters could easily appr—’

Jade’s warning came a few seconds too late.

Suddenly, a sound like of flapping wings soared overhead.

‘Get down!’

The sharp-eyed Jade spotted something in the dark ceiling and gave a sharp shout, causing Alina to look up too to see the shadow of a large wing in the dim lamplight.

KIAAAAAAAA!

An ear-splitting scream echoed through the hall. A man-eating bat with sharp black fangs spread its wings menacingly—a blood bat.

‘Of all the times!’

Loewe reacted quickly and swung his rod. A magic circle spread in the air and a fierce, swirling blaze assaulted the monster. The netherworldly bat hurried to avoid the flames, but flinched for a second and lost its balance.

‘Activate skill:“Dia’s Ruin”!’

With the bat caught off-guard, Alina leapt up. A white magic circle rose up and a warhammer materialised. Grabbing the hilt, Alina brought the weapon down on top of the blood bat’s head.

There was a dull thud as the bat was struck with such force it became embedded in the floor. For a moment it struggled, flapping its wings as it tried desperately to rise, but finally, in a convulsive fit, it took its last breath.

‘It doesn’t look like this is the humanoid monster.’

Alina stated the obvious.

‘It only came here drawn by the scent of blood. There will be more. We must quickly—’

‘That—that hammer!’

A sudden shout interrupted Jade. Rufus opened his eyes wide in shock and pointed at Alina, at the warhammer her skill had conjured.

‘Don’t tell me you’re the Executioner?!’

By the time Alina noticed her mistake, it was too late. The expression on Rufus’ face went from shock to pale horror.

‘I am. What about it?’

Alina had no choice but to admit. She sighed and nodded, but then Rufus said something beyond expectation:

‘I see. So that’s what’s going on. The Executioner isn’t human! You bitch, you’re in league with that humanoid monster!’

‘In league?’

Alina parroted.

‘Rufes! That’s enough! You can’t say such—’

‘The monster that attacked us was the same as you!’

‘Eh?’

Alina opened her eyes wide in surprise.

‘It produced a weapon from a white magic circle!!’

All present were taken aback. A white magic circle from which a weapon materialized, both phenomena that don’t occur with common or transcendent skills. Both phenomena of Alina’s Dia skill.

‘Did the humanoid monster seriously use a Dia skill?’

It was already hard to believe that a monster could use a skill, but use a Dia skill that only Alina was supposed to have? It was hard to believe, but no one could deny the possibility.

It would explain why Rufus’ party, the second strongest in the guild, could be completely wiped out in a matter of minutes. They had already discovered in the fight against the guildmaster that transcendent skills are no match against Dia skills.

‘We’ll discuss this later. For now, we’re leaving.’

Allowing no room for debate, Jade helped Rufus to his feet.

‘There’s something dangerous about this dungeon.’