Mimic Awakening

Chapter 30: The Fifth Floor

"Nine... We lost nine lives today... I’m very sorry I couldn’t protect you all..."

With heaviness in his voice, Geoffrey expresses his deep grief, kneeling before the bodies of the deceased adventurers and mercenaries.

On the floor, the nine bodies of six lifeless adventurers and three mercenaries are neatly laid in a line with blankets completely covering them. Around them are the brave warriors who want to mourn their sacrifices.

"Geoffrey..." Bashel bends his knees and puts his hand on Geoffrey’s shoulder; his voice is deep. "Don’t always blame yourself. We are all aware that losses are highly likely unavoidable in this mission. Sacrifices are unfortunately necessary for success."

"..."

Clink. Splat. Clink.

As they mourn in silence, the sounds of cutting flesh and broken bones can be heard nearby. The battle with the monsters settled down not long ago, and only a couple of knights are currently fighting the monsters in the background.

"What’s done is done," Bashel continues. "Let’s move on together, Geoffrey, and finish our mission. Don’t let their sacrifices go in vain."

"Geoffrey..." Shirley calls his name with a soft voice. "I know it’s hard to accept, but Bashel is right. We need to move forward. Don’t let yourself down."

"Thank you, everyone. My mind has been clearer than before." Hearing his friends’ motivated words, Geoffrey smiles before he stands up. "Even though we did everything we could, losing nothing is still impossible. As the hero, I should have known that. Nevertheless, we gratefully thank you, brave fallen warriors, for your sacrifices."

Geoffrey then puts his fist on his chest and bows slightly before the dead bodies. The other members of the party follow suit and give their respects to the dead. Afterwards, Geoffrey turns to Russell.

"Have you made up your mind, Sir Hero?"

"Yeah, captain. Even though it’s hard, we have to move on. Shall we continue to the next floor?"

"Ho ho. You are being so lively, Sir Hero. But before we can do that, let’s ask the others if they want to continue any further."

After saying that, both Geoffrey and Russell glance at the people around them, especially the adventurers, and they seem to be visually exhausted physically and probably mentally. There are already casualties, and they could not just ignore it, and they begin to worry for their own safety.

"What should we do, captain?"

"With the deaths of these men, naturally, it would put a strain on their mental state that eventually results in losing their will to continue. In my opinion, we should let them decide if they want to stay or go back to the surface."

"That’s for the better. I know some of them have families waiting for them, and I don’t want them to come home dead. We are not forcing them to accompany us in the first place."

"If that’s what you want, Sir Hero."

Russell announces to everyone that they are free to go back to the surface if they do not want to continue anymore. Upon hearing that, most of the adventurers and mercenaries, who will not be paid later, decide to pull back together with their loot. Russell assigns around a dozen combined knights and mercenaries to escort the adventurers as well as carry the dead bodies with them.

With only a few veteran adventurer parties, mercenary squads, and dozens of knights left to accompany them, the heroes’ party proceeds to descend to the fifth floor.

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The fourth floor devastates the company, forcing a majority of them to back out to the surface. Alongside the members of the heroes’ party and the knights, a few high-ranking adventurer parties and mercenary squads stay in the group.

In total, two adventurer parties and a mercenary squad did not leave the group. Each of them is quite popular back in the kingdom and holds a good reputation. In fact, one of them is actually one of the top adventurer parties in the kingdom.

In general, the remaining parties decided to stay for the reason that they wanted their names to be written alongside the hero for rescuing the Great Sorceress. Even if they failed, at least they helped the hero in capturing the dungeon.

"Ha!"

Splat!

Geoffrey slashes his longsword diagonally, cleanly slicing the neck of a cockatrice. Right after, he holds the hilt of his sword with both hands before stepping his right foot forward while thrusting his blade. The tip of the blade pierces the eye of a basilisk and penetrates into its brain before it could cast its paralyzing gaze.

The group is currently on the fifth floor fighting another wave of monsters. On the fifth floor, the temperature expectedly rises again. It becomes so hot that their own heat resistances cannot handle it, and they have to rely on the resistance buffs of the supports.

Like the first four floors, this floor is still a labyrinth of the same hundred-meter sides. The length of the hallway progressively becomes longer than the previous one.

Since the width of the hallway is still the same, Agatha’s light is still able to cover the circumference of the hallway. But in the middle of the fight, she usually leaves an intermediate-level light magic spell, Illumination Dome, a bright light source that hovers midair.

The monsters on this floor are naturally more powerful than ever, and more kinds of monsters have been added to the list.

Other than the cockatrice and basilisk that Geoffrey just defeated, monsters like giant theraphosids, three-meter-tall tarantula monsters; liches, magic-casting undead; skeleton warriors, weapon-wielding undead; mega constrictors, snakes up to twenty meters in length; and five-meter-tall cyclopes are simultaneously fighting the group.

Even though their spawn is less frequent, one of these monsters is enough to overwhelm an average adventurer party in the kingdom and would require teams of a few parties to take one down with minimal damage. A single one of these monsters is already considered a threat on the surface, and it could wipe out a small town on its own.

However, the remaining warriors on this floor are seasoned and individually capable themselves. One of the two adventurer parties could match up a city-level threat. In addition to the strong and disciplined knights and the heroes’ party itself, the adventurers and the mercenaries manage to keep up with the monsters without straining themselves.

Since many of the adventurers and mercenaries back out, the average firepower of the group drastically spikes up. For that reason, the supports in the group have fewer people to bless with buffs and provide healings.

"Bashel! Give me space!"

"Alright."

Planning to cast something big, Agatha asks Bashel to cover her so that she can prepare her spell. As Bashel is slaying and pushing away nearby monsters with his poleaxe and shield, Agatha channels a large amount of her mana through her wooden staff, which is an instrument to hasten the casting time, and a large magic circle with a diameter of five meters appears on the floor.

"Let me support you, Agatha. Magic Boost."

"Big thanks, Shirley."

Despite being busy supporting others, Shirley still lends a hand to Agatha and enhances her magic power. After a few seconds of casting, the spell has been completed, and Agatha is ready to pull the trigger.

"Get out of the area, guys! It’s going to be explosive!"

Hearing Agatha’s warning, anyone immediately steps away from the coverage of the magic circle, leaving a few monsters inside. To do more damage, the others collectively cooperate to push and drive more monsters into the magic circle. Once everything is placed, Agatha releases one of her most powerful spells.

"Burn, you beasts. Fire Vortex!"

A pillar of fiery flames violently gushes out from the magic circle and engulfs the ten monsters in it. The pillar is so tall that its flames touch the ceiling. Almost immediately, the flame begins to spin rapidly.

"GGRRRWWW!!!"

The faster the flames spin, the higher the temperature inside. It is so hot that the flames bypass the monsters’ resistance to heat, and they begin to burn up. Each second, more and more of their skin gets charred.

What Agatha just unleashed was a powerful high-level magic spell, a tier higher than advanced magic. Magic spells of this level are on a grand scale and so powerful and destructive that they could potentially obliterate a town.

Since those monsters are the last ones at the time, the others just watch the spectacle in awe. When the flames settle down, the skin of the monsters caught in the spell has completely turned to black. A second later, the monsters one by one fall to the ground.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

"That’s the last one," Geoffrey compliments. "Good job, Agatha."

"It’s nothing. I can cast it a few more times."

Agatha says as she takes out a vial of elixir that restores a fixed amount of mana before she gulps its contents.

"I would also like to appreciate everyone’s efforts to clear this floor."

"For the hero!"

The group cheers, raising their fists in the air.

"Before we proceed, I would like to say a few things. The difficulties we will encourage are getting more challenging and obviously more dangerous. It’s the hero’s duty to protect. That’s why you are free to back out now if you don’t want to go further anymore."

"..."

The hallway of the fifth floor goes silent, and the people just take glances and exchange nods at one another, implying that they are all in the same boat. Seeing their determination, Geoffrey smiles.

"Alright. I understand. If you all have steeled your resolve, then who am I to object? The monsters have been spawning; let’s go down before they can catch us."