Damian created a big golden dome using the golden shield barrier spell. Hundreds of fiery giant rocks fell upon it with a loud booming sound. It cracked in some places, but the repair was near instant—the barrier held strong without giving the slightest hope to the monsters.

Lucian had launched a storm of powerful aura-clad icy attacks of her sacrium sword onto the staff-wielding black insect king. Lucian was fast and deadly precise, but the king was even faster and stronger physically. It was a weird mix between a mage and a spellsword.

The bone white staff was actually clad in a red single-element pure mana. Obviously, it fell short in front of Lucian's aura-clad dark blue sacrium blade that froze everything it touched. Yet the force alone of the staff was enough to parry and even break Lucian's blade and ice attacks before they spread too far.

Several times, the king of insects even cut off his own frozen limbs and regrew them in a matter of seconds to continue fighting without any restraint on his strength or speed.

The monster wasn't at his best though.

One whole part of his full strength was denied to him. The staff or a weird skill was responsible for commanding all monsters present on this floor. Before, it was just the fiery rocks, but with time, the giant dung beetles with magma carapace had also joined in slamming their rocks onto the barrier from all sides on the ground.

Occasionally, Damian sensed the dirt-yellow centipede coming from beneath them and warned Sam and Mindseer to deal with it so the battle between Lucian and the insect king could go uninterrupted.

When the king of insects could not get the help of any of his servants, it screeched in annoyance.

Lucian had trapped the guy in a mountain of ice several times, but each time it broke out before Lucian could chain more attacks. The bone staff released fire like never before seen, it almost matched the hellfire Damian could release, and even that azure flames Sea Snake uses.

'No.. It should be 'Sea Snake used. The guy is dead now. I should remember that.'

Lucian used her best ice stream skill and yet the fire the king produced was winning over her. Lucian and the insect king had been in three-four ice and fire confrontations till now, and each time Lucian had to give out and dodge the fire. Damian could see no runic circles, which meant the fire was either a skill of the king or something the weird staff could do.

The king was pushing forward his staff each time before releasing the flames, which made the source of it confusing.

At last, Lucian baited the guy in releasing his flames to clash against her ice stream. But moments later, she activated the wormhole spell from her sacrium sword and cut off the hand of the king with a hidden dagger. The same hand in which he held the white staff.

Without the staff and the condensed orb, the king could not face the ice stream fast enough and turned into another popsicle. But this time, he could not get out on time. Lucian chained several other spells and attacks, sealing the guy's fate. After beating the guy to a pulp, Lucian exited her own ice mountain and thickened the outer layer of deep blue tough ice to the limit.

Once the insect king was trapped inside, Lucian hollowed out the ice mountain's interior and then released hundreds of sharp icicles at the trapped insect. The monster fought bravely, shattering some icicles, burning some, thwarting some aside—but in the end, his chest, head, and everything else were full of sharp icicles.

The insect king died.

Lucian received a dungeon relic. It was the bone staff. Eighty percent of the dungeon relics were either a weapon or some polished material that originated from the same dungeon. Only rarely would one get something different like his genica ember. Killing a legendary indeed deserved receiving something rare.

But the rank of the party also played a part in what the dungeon considered easy for them. Only hard-won fights resulted in something unique and powerful. It was the dungeon's subtle way of saying, 'Don't farm for this and go fight a stronger monster, you moron.

Even in just a passing glance, Damian had seen several useful ores and sources of metals that he would have loved to take a closer look at.

The bone staff with red orb was quite an impressive weapon for a transcendent mage. Though, to his standards, it was average. The special skill, Piercing Flames, one gets while holding it, is actually kinda cool. For a mage, if someone closes in, this could be really useful.

They proceeded to the next level. The terrain had remained the same, but there were slight changes to it. River of lava split the 40 km dungeon floor into two pieces. The burning rock-throwing translucent menta-rays were present here as well. Only the rocks they threw now broke the thin black plates the surface was made of and ended up in the lava beneath.

The black surface was not sand anymore but made of obsidian. Shining beneath their feet like glass, reflecting the glaring giant sun above. The sky wasn't red anymore, but a yellowish-bronze shade. The translucent menta-rays were more visible here, if that was supposed to be any relief.

Fully-grown drakes swimming in the lava river were the most common monsters; a mid-emperor rank monster was the lowest rank present on each floor. A massive obsidian skin worm was seen several times rising from the lava beneath, breaking the obsidian crust to get the drakes.

And there were demonic guys.

Red skin, four yellow-black eyes, black horns, burning tail, humanoid muscular, tall figure, wielding weapons made of obsidian. All in all, ugliest Pokémon ever in existence. It resembled somewhat that of the red-skinned subordinate of Sulthar.

Each of these bastards was at least an emperor rank. There was even a legendary boss monster every 4 levels after 60. At level 64, they faced the enormous obsidian worm. And at level 68, a legendary leader of the red-skinned weirdos.

There were too many powerful monsters to fight solo anymore. All four of them fought together to quickly end whatever thing was blocking their path and moved forward. As the number of floors increased, so did the size of the monsters present in it. Now the quality of a monster's strength was more focused than quantity, like earlier levels.

Also, the floors were still 40km big, so big-sized monsters needed a bigger area to roam around, leaving less space for weaker ones. The infighting was less in these higher levels, but territories were more solid here.

Souldealer's illusions and Lucian's ice skills distracted the titanic worm boss on level 64 as Sam and Damian used their respective sword attacks to cut the bastard into several pieces. With his fake soulbound spear gone, Damian's main weapon had become the simple no spell etched sacrium sword.

He could use spells on his own fast enough that he needed none to be placed on a weapon. The hair-thin, sharp air spell was the most used spell by him for cutting big, chunky monsters.

With his sacrium sword as a base, he could use any weapon spells he wanted without limit. It was like abusing his blade, but the sacrium could take it for years of such abuse without breaking. Unless he used something ridiculously big spell.

The level 68 boss was another weirdo that used both mage and esper attacks. The entire river of magma flowing through was in his control. Any normal transcendent team would have pissed their pants just seeing that. No wonder even Landbreaker alone thought it too much to handle and did not proceed further.

But Damian had enough protective spells that his team could ignore the lava altogether; he could read what spells the monster was going to use and when, so warning of those spells spared everyone from surprises. Only brute strength remained? That Sam, Lucian, and Mindseer's combined attacks could easily overpower. Of course, Damian too assisted when he felt like it.

The runic suits were working on their near limit as well. They could feel the heat since level 45, and the air was barely breathable, but now it was becoming taxing even for their transcedent bodies covered in the best cold-providing, heat-resistant armors.

The capsules of liquid mana were emptying every 15-20 minutes now just to keep up with the temperature. It wasn't just that, though; Damian had created an original spell working with Vidalia that generated true breathable air. That was the spell etched in their oxygen tanks, providing oxygen.

It was quite a big achievement. But only Damian, Vidalia, and a few others, to whom he could explain what oxygen, nitrogen, and gases were, could understand the significance.

Their weapons were getting too hot as well. Damian had to use a custom sacrium runic tool on the spot to lock their weapon temperature as well.

At last, they crossed level 68, where Landbreaker had stopped. And entered the 69, which was not that impressive, but then came level 70.

The boss monster of which had the rank of Unfathomable.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.