The two giant statues entered the room and grinned at the group of shocked Adventurers they found standing in the large expanse.
"Those are the statues we saw at the entrance, right? What are they doing here?" Jack let out in confusion.
The two colloidal structures were by fat larger than the Boss Monster the group had just faced, and their menacing aura showed that they were vastly superior.
"What the hell?! Why are they here..." Lucy muttered nervously, gulping as she beheld their sight.
Nathan stood and observed the two Giant statues. Everyone else was talking about why they appeared after the Boss was defeated, however, he was more concerned about other matters.
"The Window... What does this mean? This hasn't happened before... Annihilation mode? Randomizer function? What do they mean? For these statues to have suddenly moved, it must be related to that notification... Just what is happening here?"
Before he could complete his thoughts and give an answer to the question which plagued him, the stone structures dashed to the location of the Party.
This sudden motion sent everyone into a flustered state, too overcome by shock to react appropriately. Their every step shook the room and made the newbies lose balance.
The Party members were all tired, and faced with such an overwhelming threat caused their bodily functions to be
The Statued reached their front and raised their fists to squash the puny humans like insects.
As they descended their hands, the pressure making the hair on everyone's body rise, thee Adventurers knew they were dead for sure.
However, ...
"Blade Of Rupture..."
As the short whisper sounded, echoing across the room, a bright blue spark shone across the whole room, and suddenly the descent of the monsters' hands was stopped.
The rocky fists immediately shattered, turning into tiny particles of stones as they burst away, scattering across the room.
"Guoooorhhh" The two monstrous figures changed their expression to that of shock and pain, groaning as they retracted what was left of their damaged arms.
The members of the party, in their frozen state, saw what had just happened and they all turned to Nathan in shock. Their eyes lit up when they saw him, with the blue sparks of light and electric energy revolving around him, he looked like their source of hope in the despairing situation.
Holding his Relic, he took his stance, griping his unsheathed blade tightly as he focused on the monsters. He didn't bother looking at his mentees, all he needed to do was strike down the two enemies before him.
The two statues changed their faces from pain to anger. Their eyes displayed pure hate and animosity.
"Graoarrrrr!!!!" They roared in rage.
Their lost limbs immediately reformed from the rocky particles around them. Being fully recuperated, they both stared at Nathan menacingly, ready to destroy him.
In the face of their immense pressure which was enough to petrify the rest of the party members, Nathan's face showed no hint of fear or nervousness. He was unhinged from his position and his focus was undeterred.
Compared to the horror he faced in the past, the terror of losing his friends and his freedom, a period long enough to drive him to insanity countless times over... Compared to that time, the mere grunts of these two beasts counted for nothing.
"In one minute... I'll end this..." Nathan whispered.
"Rroughhhh" The statues responded in angered tones.
"Come!" He smiled slightly.
The giant statues rushed at him simultaneously, their hands stretched to grab and crush him. Immediately they were within range, the blue sparks around Nathan increased, brightening up and heightening its devastating force.
Nathan swung his blade at the air, not physically slashing anything... However... His Relic's ability activated at that moment.
An invisible wave of sharp power cut through the tough bodies of the rock entities, causing their entire bodies to slice in two.
Their expressions changed to shock, however, a wide grin quickly replaced this, as their bodies began to merge back.
"O-Oh no! You need to get their core..." Lydia muttered as she saw Nathan's futile attempt to strike them down.
She immediately stretched forth her hand and prepared to raise her voice to tell him. However, as soon as she tried, she saw a smile form on his face. It was wide, confident, and ecstatic... Like he was in perfect control of everything and he was the guaranteed victor. That was when it struck her.
"Nathan doesn't need me worrying about him. He was the one who told us about the 'core' in the first place... Of course, he knows... "
She realized that rather than worry about Nathan, perhaps it was the other way around.
He was worried about them.
As the stone bodies of the monsters gathered together, Nathan took a step closer and gave multiple slashes, advancing closer with each swing of his hand.
Immediately, the statues split apart, their rocky bodies divided evenly, revealing the core which was inside their body.
"Found it..." He muttered.
Nathan prepared his final strike and twisted his body as he delivered it. With a single flow, he drew his blade and appeared behind the statues, once again striking at the air.
After this, he unsheathed his blade, and immediately the cores of both Statues cleanly sliced apart.
Before their inevitable deaths, the statues showed fear and desperation, nearly as though they pleaded not to be taken away into nonexistence. However, Nathan paid no heed to the bellows of monsters.
In no time at all, they crumbled and fell to the ground in a large thud.
"Fifty-three seconds... Not bad..." Nathan muttered to himself.
He definitely took longer than he thought. Maybe it was because he had gotten slightly accustomed to reducing his power usage and so his skills had dulled. However, he didn't dwell on those thoughts since there were more weighty matters at hand.
"Is everyone okay?" Nathan asked, turning to the party members.
Their eyes brightened up when he glanced over at them.
"T-That was... AWESOME!!!" Jack let out in his usual hot-blooded manner.
"Yeah, I didn't know you were that cool, Mister" Lucy added.
Puck, Desmond, and Carl also agreed, and they were all beaming with enthusiasm.
Nathan smiled as he shook his head, taken aback by their reaction.
"You guys realize what kind of situation we're in right? The windows you all saw... Did you read them? It seems something has changed in this Dungeon, and things won't be as easy as we thought they would be..." Nathan said to them.
They all looked downcast as Nathan said this, the harsh reality of their predicament sank in as they pondered helplessly on his words.
"There's no need to worry! All we need to do is survive 14 more days, right? The statues took us by surprise is all, plus, we were exhausted. If we had enough time to prepare, we wouldn't have been sitting ducks. We can do this!" Jack quickly let out, speaking to everyone in order to raise their spirit.
Everyone's face brightened up when they heard Jack's words. Accepting his logic, they nodded in agreement.
"We've gotten stronger in this dungeon, ao we won't be dead weight!" Lucy remarked. "B-Besides, with what you've just shown, we should be safe!" Puck reasoned.
This last statement made everyone laugh relaxingly. The pressure which disturbed the hearts of everyone slowly dissipated.
Nathan sighed.
"They're getting comfortable... This isn't good..."
This was one of the reasons why he didn't want to show his true strength to them. They would get confident and place their trust in him. He wanted them to rely on their own power, realizing they had plenty of room for growth.
However, now was not the time to get conservative. The first priority at the moment was survival.
"At this point, if this is what I think it is... I have to go all out..." Nathan thought to himself.
"We should leave this floor since the door to the Boss Room is torn apart, it's no longer safe here. Our only chance is to find a safe zone to rest and re-strategize." Nathan suggested.
They all nodded in agreement.
The members of the party went to the passageway which led to the 3rd floor. Unknown to them, though... That wasn't where they were headed.
[System Notification]
<<RANDOMIZER Function activated>>
Nathan and everyone else looked at the window displayed in front of them with confusion, perplexed about what the strange notification meant.
<Selecting Random Floor>
Nathan's eyes widened immediately, realizing what the system meant by Randomizer.
"No! Everyone, quickly return! Let's go back to the Boss Room! Hurry!!!" He exclaimed, shouting with desperation in his voice.
The Party members were flustered by Nathan's sudden irritated reaction and didn't move on time.
"Hurry!!!" His voice yelled once again.
By the time they caught on and made to return to where they came from, a bright light shone.
<Random Floor Selected>
<Welcome To The 5th Floor>
The window displaying this information was the last thing Nathan saw before he became indeed by the light which enveloped him and his teammates.
His heart raced in panic as fear slowly began to creep into him. He felt a sense of foreboding that signaled the likely occurrence of the same thing that befell his previous teammates.
He didn't want that.
However, he would soon come to realize that his priorities were misplaced by just thinking about the others... In the new world within the Dungeon... His own survival was also in question.
[System Information]
<Due To The Level Of Difficulty, Several Changes Have Been Made>
<Safe Zones Have Been Removed>
<Hunger and Thirst Elimination Have Been Removed>
<Monster Restrictions Have Been Removed>
<Annihilation Function Enabled>
<Reward System Has Been Altered>
<Rewards Have Drastically Improved>
<Drop Function Initiated>
<Goodluck>
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