The lake was fully pulled into Davi's vault. The water level rapidly dropped, getting lower and lower, until soon Davi's feet touched the bottom.

From all the way at the top, Olivia peered down and let out a whistle. The lake was massive in terms of width, and it seemed just as deep. Davi stood five miles down, at the now-empty lake, and it looked as if a village resided where he was.

There were dozens of small huts, each forged from coral and reefs. It was a small village, with fewer than a hundred houses in total, but still a village. Davi was directly in the town square, and a path jutted out heading towards the back of the lake's bottom, where a massive castle stood!

The castle was constructed from solid black stone and was tall and imposing. It had no windows, and only a single bridge was down, allowing access into the strange place.

Also, since this was the Merfolk's home, Davi found himself surrounded by another small horde of Merfolk who all hated the fact that he was in their home. Calmly, Davi stuffed the anchor back into his vault and pulled out a claymore, then he got to work.

While he was doing that, Olivia gripped her scythe. She took a deep breath, and, forcing her nerves down, she stepped off the ledge. Instantly, she began to drop through the sky, falling at a rapid rate.

Olivia spun around midair, and she slammed her weapon into the side of the lake's wall, her scythe digging in. Sparks flew as she kept falling, but she was going down at a slower rate, as her weapon managed to get lodged in and would halt her fall. Then she'd pull it out to start falling again, only to stab it back into the wall.

Unlike Davi or Ragna, she wasn't durable enough to survive the fall and couldn't just shrug it off like they could.

When she finally reached the bottom, her arms ached and vibrated, but Quick Regeneration quickly numbed them, and she shook her head and turned back to where Davi was. "Dang, you work fast!" Olivia's eyes went wide when she saw that all the Merfolk were already dead.

Davi's sword was in the last one's chest, and he pulled it out and sliced it through the air, sending the blood that was on his blade scattering. "Thankfully, Ragna was right. These particular ones aren't that strong." He reached up and rubbed the side of his helmet where his scar was. "Danger Sense hasn't calmed down, though. I'm betting that the real threat is in that castle."

Olivia ripped her scythe out of the wall, and together with Davi, the two of them walked toward the castle in the distance. She wasn't good at sensing mana and lacked any sort of trait that could do it, but she still felt her hair stand up along her arms the closer she got.

Music also filled the air. It was a surprisingly lovely melody that drifted out of the castle's open gate and surrounded them. The soft hum only grew louder, and as they got closer, Olivia felt a shift in the air, and when she turned around, she saw that she had stepped through a significant dome-like barrier that was around the entire castle.

It was just like with the snake, being solid mana, but this one she could exit out of, testing with her arm, which phased through. The primary purpose of this barrier was likely to keep the water out, as well as the Merfolk. The castle would have a separate dungeon space, where the monsters inside would likely not care for the Merfolk.

Davi walked across the bridge, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at the gate that led into the castle. It was pitch-black, making it impossible to see or hear what was on the other side. His scar kept throbbing, but he fought down the pain and forced himself to take another step, Olivia right behind him, as they entered the castle and found themselves in the next level of the dungeon.

The music, which had been soft and peaceful, was loud and thundering now. Space had bent and twisted when they walked past the doorway, and instead of entering a castle, the two of them now found themselves in a massive cathedral-like hall!

The room was made entirely out of white marble, and massive pillars reached toward the roof, holding it up. A carpet was across the floor, and there were rows of chairs scattered around. Religious symbols of the Almighty and paintings of elves in priest-like robes rested on the walls. Vines, flowers, and roots also grew everywhere, this place having been long abandoned by nature, with trees thrusting their way out of the ground and rows of hedges forming out.

Ragna was also in the room, the large, muscular man narrowly dodging swipes of wooden hands that slammed down toward him.

At the back of the cathedral, where a priest might sit to address his people, an enormous tree, even larger than the one used to enter the dungeon, was embedded in the wall. Instead of branches, the tree had limbs that snaked out and looked like they could reach for anything. One hand held Crowe, and the other dozens of them slapped and swatted at Ragna, missing the man and leaving cracks along the floor.

A piano was attached to the front of the tree, fused into its wood, and a figure sat on a chair playing the music that filled the air. The figure wore the same black priest outfit the elves in the painting had, but this was no elf; instead, it was made out of solid wood. Jagged branches stabbed out of its eyes and ran along its skull like horns, and it played like its life depended on it, strumming the keys faster and faster, and the hands obeyed the melody it was telling, attacking Ragna with even more intent.

Ragna jumped into the air and kicked off one of the pillars, shattering it as he did so. The kick boosted him forward, and he used Sky-Walking to suddenly dodge midair and reach the arm that held Crowe. With a simple chop, Ragna cut through the hand and pulled the man out. After that, Ragna jumped back, avoiding another wave of attacks, and he landed next to Olivia and Davi.

"You two caught up just in time!" Ragna mused.

"We came as fast as we could." Olivia worriedly stared at the tree monster, watching as the hands reformed around it. "That thing looks tough."

"I've fought bigger." Davi shrugged and readied his sword.

"Good, because you're going to have to take it out without me." Ragna chuckled.

"What?" Olivia glanced at her teacher. "You want us to fight that thing on our own?"

"Not particularly, but I don't have time to help." Ragna glanced down at Crowe, whose body was shaking. The man's eyes were squeezed shut, and he was breathing heavily. "He hasn't been hit with the effects of the dungeon yet, but he's getting close. I'm going to use my speed and rush him out of here. Since we're in a dungeon, my Mana Step is slower than usual, but I'll be as fast as I can. Once I get him back to the village, I'll rush back here."

"Don't bother." Davi shook his head, and he began to walk toward the tree. "We'll finish this thing off before you get back."

Ragna's grin grew. "I like the spirit. I'm not worried. You two got this. Stay safe."

"We will," Olivia promised, and she watched as Ragna vanished, using his Mana Step to get away. "We do have this right?"

"Of course." Davi's grip grew tighter on his greatsword. "Just do what you have to do when the time is right."

"What?"

"You'll know."

Davi didn't give her much more time to wonder what he meant, as he then took off toward the tree as fast as he could. The hand Ragna destroyed regrew, and the music kicked back up as the creature on the piano began to play twice as fast.

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Davi threw his sword at the monster, but the hands quickly defended it, one coming down and blocking it. There were over twenty in total, and each one was speedy. Before Davi could even react, he was slapped into the air by two hands, and then a third hand wrapped around his body and tried to crush him.

Davi gritted his teeth and flexed his arms, his mana igniting around him as he broke out of the tree's grasp. He fell to the ground, and a bunch more of the hands punched at him, sending him flying through the room and right through a stone pillar.

His body vibrated, and he used Way of Self Iron to force the energy down into his feet, kicking off the ground and launching back toward the figure on the piano. "Row Shadow Vault." His sword appeared in his hand, and the arms tried to get in his way, but he used the force of their impacts to fuel his swings, ripping them to shreds. More hands kept coming, though, attempting to wrap around him. "Row Shadow Vault." A chain blasted out of his vault, the very same one that was around the anchor, and it was so thick and heavy that it was perfect for binding around five different hands, tugging them into the ground.

Davi used one of the downed hands, running over it and going up its arm to get into the air, and he came slicing down toward the figure on the piano, but the final remaining hands all slammed into him.

He grunted as he was smashed stomach-first into the ground. There were only four hands left; the others were either healing or stuck in his chain. The four hands each picked one of his limbs, and they began to push down as hard as they could, hoping to crush him, but Davi withstood them, and his lips curled slightly into a smile. "Looks like you left yourself wide open."

"Row Blood Bolt!"

A beam of red surged out of Olivia's scythe and pierced directly past the monster playing the piano. Its chest was torn open, and the piano keys flew into the air as the instrument exploded from her attack. The creature paused, no longer playing, and even though it lacked eyes, it looked down at itself and watched as the hole along it began to expand, and then it was split in half, dying.

Davi flexed again, and all the wood hands that kept him pressed down shattered as he stood up. "And that's that."

"Davi!" Olivia went to run, but the world spun slightly, and she winced. She had used a spell. Now that her bottles were empty, that spell had come from her own blood, so she was one spell down. Five more to go. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Davi's armor mended and fixed itself, and he glanced at Olivia. "And you?"

"I'm fine." Olivia let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that wasn't too bad. I thought the boss would be harder, but it went down in one hit. Maybe I'm just that good!"

"That wasn't the boss."

"I know." Olivia huffed. "I just wanted to pretend like it was. We still have at least another floor." Ragna had claimed that there were more than two floors to this dungeon. The lake had been part of the first floor, with this castle serving as the second. That meant they had at least one floor to go, possibly more. "Are we going forward, or are we stopping?"

Davi folded his arms, and he thought about it. Truth be told, fighting that big Merfolk and taking some solid punches from it, then getting thrown around by that tree, meant his body was no longer in peak condition. He could still fight, but not as well as he usually could. Olivia was also an issue.

Her blood magic packed a lot of power, and her scythe was even sharper and more dangerous than his sword, but she still didn't have a full-on fighting sense yet. Dealing with slow small fries had been easy, but that tree would have killed her if it had hit her once, which was why he used her to snipe the beast on the piano instead, while he took all the blows.

There was also the issue of her using a spell. The bottles were so she wouldn't have to use her own blood, but they clearly hadn't packed enough, and she had already used one of her spells. Each time she used a spell, it wasn't good for her because she lacked a strong Core, so the mana she had wasn't as plentiful as his, and since she'd use her own blood, every spell she used made her a little bit weaker. That meant the current Olivia was slower, weaker, and more tired than the Olivia who first entered this dungeon.

With Quick Regeneration, her body would recover blood much faster, but the issue was that they couldn't just sit around and wait for her to heal. Each dungeon was different in terms of how fast its mana would corrupt a person, and while neither of them had shown signs of turning into a mutant yet, if they waited until Ragna came back or until Olivia was fully healed, that process might begin.

At the same time, though, leaving wasn't the best option either. At that point, the boss of this dungeon would know they were here. This dungeon was inhabited by at least two different species and featured a third floor. It likely meant all the creatures were living together and not bothering each other, but now that they cleared two of the floors out, the boss, which would be the strongest monster, would be able to use this as its chance to refill the dungeon with its own seed, spawning in minions.

If it were a smart monster, it might also set traps or other things up to make getting to its lair even harder. Their second time through would be a lot more difficult and challenging and would give the boss time to prepare and grow.

Finally, Davi made up his mind. "Okay. Let's try at least one more floor."

"Just one?"

"Yeah." Davi nodded. "If the next floor is the boss, then that'll be good for us. Since all three floors had their own type of monster, that means it'd be difficult for the boss to simply kill them all, so it likely isn't going to be much stronger than what we've faced so far. If it is stronger than expected, we can also just leave. If the next floor is also not the boss, we can clear it out, get a feel for how strong the enemies are, and then leave. It'll mean the second time coming through will be a lot harder, but we'll have Ragna with us and be better prepared."

"We won't be able to rest up too much. If the dungeon breaks, the monsters can leave." Olivia pointed out.

"That's true, but we'd only need a small break, and we can camp outside of the dungeon with Ragna to make sure that doesn't happen. That's only if this next floor isn't the boss. If we get lucky, it will be, and we can just clear it out and be done with this place."

"Alright." Olivia shrugged. "That sounds good to me. Where is the next floor anyway?"

Davi walked to the tree and, with a single slash, split past what remained of the destroyed piano, tearing into the wood and revealing another entrance, much like the one they had used to first step into this place. "Found it." Like the castle door, this one was covered in a thick black mist that made it impossible to see through to the other side, but the smell of ash and coal made Davi's nose twitch, even beneath his helmet.

Fire?

Dragon?

His dragon?

Likely not, but something in him did stir, even if it was a small bit. If he were lucky, his quest would end here and now. Of course, Davi Hawker was never lucky.

Olivia was about to follow Davi as he got ready to enter the fog gate, but before she could, something caught her eye. It shimmered and managed to reflect into her gaze, causing her to look down at where the wood monster had been sliced in half.

"Oh? Look." Olivia bent down and picked up something that slid out of the monster's corpse. "It's a core?"

It was a small golden core, about the size of a golf ball. It was warm and emanated a strange energy, but it was also solid, and she could hold it. Davi glanced back at it and nodded.

"It doesn't seem that powerful, but I guess we got lucky and this monster had one." He shrugged. "The captain told me a bit about them, but I wasn't really listening. Go ahead and pocket it, and we'll show it to Ragna when we leave. Maybe we'll even find more of them."

Olivia placed the orb into her pocket and gave a nod. "Alright. Well, I'm ready."

"Then let's hope for an easy room."

Davi stepped past the fog and entered the next floor of the dungeon. He felt an intense wave of heat smash into him, and he winced. Olivia nearly collapsed to her knees as she stumbled out, and she covered her face with her hands.

The air was extremely hot, burning even. His Flame Resistance let him withstand it, but Olivia had to flare her mana up just to stop herself from being cooked alive. She became drenched in sweat, and suddenly, the leather armor she was wearing felt way too tight and restricting. While she was melting, Davi looked around and felt confused.

He had seen this place before.

Behind them was a dead tree, which was the doorway that connected back to the cathedral. The third dungeon floor was a massive plot of land that stretched out endlessly. The ground was made out of ash and coal, and flakes of tiny embers rained down, burning Olivia whenever they touched her flesh.

Roots of magma twisted through the ground, and steam filled the air, constantly rising, along with smoke and other fumes. Dozens of meters away from them was a giant lake of lava. It bubbled and boiled, like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

What troubled Davi the most was the fact that this was the same setup as the one on the first floor. A tree that was the gateway, an open field with a large tree in the center, and roots that dug through the ground. Instead of grass and wood, this floor was fire and magma, as if the first floor had been scorched and burned away entirely.

The elves had created every floor of a dungeon, each floor meant to serve as a trap to keep greedy humans from stealing the items they locked away in their vaults. Had the elves been lazy and created two floors that were the same, but one was burnt? And even if they had, dungeons had random floors assigned to them, so even if two were mirror reflections of each other, the chances of those two floors ending up in the same dungeon were slim.

Out of the billions of floors that existed, you'd have to have the exact correct pattern.

Something was off.

Before Davi could think about it more, the lava lake stopped bubbling, and something began to make its way out.

"Alright." Davi took a calming breath. "Get ready, Olivia. This one's going to be tough."

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