The small room on the dungeon’s seventh floor contained a teleportation magic circle and stairs leading back up to B6F. As the circle flared with light, two people and two beasts—Rei, Elena, Set, and Iero—materialized within it.
"…I can’t get used to this," Elena muttered quietly.
"To what?" Rei asked in return.
At his side, Set was already scouting the perimeter with practiced efficiency. The previous day, they’d had the thief Byune with them, which meant they didn't have to be quite as vigilant. Today, however, it was just Rei, Elena, Set, and Iero. Naturally, they had to be on high guard for traps and ambushes, and Set—possessing the sharpest five senses of the group—instinctively took on that responsibility.
"The cave-style layout," Elena said, scanning the surroundings with a slight furrow in her brow. "Up through the fifth floor, it was... well, a standard dungeon. But I’ve never cared for this atmosphere."
The floor was made of hard-packed earth littered with stones. While the walls emitted the same faint glow as the floors above, the environment felt fundamentally different. The most notable change was the temperature; being a cavern, the air was chilly and refreshing.
With midsummer in full swing, daytime temperatures in Exil often soared well above thirty degrees Celsius. Since the party had set out in the early morning, it wasn't quite that hot yet, but the heat would only intensify as the day went on. In that sense, the dungeon’s natural refrigeration was almost a professional perk for adventurers. In fact, many adventurers frequented the cave floors from B6F to B10F during this season specifically to seek out a decent profit while escaping the heat.
Today, however, the dungeon was unusually quiet. The news of Anomaly Species had likely discouraged the less experienced from venturing too deep.
"Well, complaining about it won’t get us anywhere," Rei said. "Besides, I heard everything from B11F onward is a desert. I think this is a lot better than that. Come on, let’s go."
"I suppose. Even so, I wonder how deep we would have to dive to find a magic item that allows for long-distance communication."
"We won’t know until we try. Monsters might carry powerful weapons on these floors, but a communication magic item sounds like something you’d only find in the much deeper strata, don’t you think?"
They stepped out of the small room, chatting as they went. As expected, the view ahead was identical to the cave-like corridors of the sixth floor.
"Guruuu!"
The moment they cleared the doorway, Set let out a sharp cry, sensing something approaching. Rei and Elena immediately readied their weapons. Elena drew her whip-sword from its sheath, while Rei summoned the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring.
Soon, rhythmic, heavy thuds—clack, clack—echoed from further down the passage. Rei recognized the sound instantly, and Elena did as well. After all, they had seen both the anomalous and standard versions of these creatures only the day before.
"Stone Puppets. What’s the plan? Their movement speed is low, so we could just avoid them," Elena suggested. She asked only as a formality; the bellicose grin on Rei’s face told her everything she needed to know.
Running from an enemy inside these caves meant either retreating to the teleportation circle or heading back up to B6F. They could have hidden in the safety of the magic circle room, but Rei wasn't the type for such passive tactics. Besides, if the puppets decided to linger at the entrance, they would only be wasting time before the inevitable fight.
"I suppose it’s a waste of breath even asking," she sighed.
"My bad. I just have something I want to test. Let them get a bit closer."
Rei leaned on the butt end of the Death Scythe, prompting a suspicious look from Elena.
"What exactly do you intend to do?"
"It occurred to me last night. Like the Mud Puppets, these Stone Puppets are essentially slow, right?"
"Well, yes. Though their individual strikes are quite powerful."
"Exactly. That makes them the perfect targets to test an attack method I've been considering for a while…"
Rei trailed off as the Stone Puppets finally rounded the corner. Footsteps alone had suggested their identity, but he was surprised to see three of them instead of one.
"…Or maybe they don't always move alone."
"Did your calculations go awry? Shall we just take them down normally?"
"No, I was just caught off guard by the numbers. The method should still work. Listen, I’m going to disrupt their footing. If it works, they’ll trip. Don't miss the opening—strike them all at once."
It was a vague set of instructions, but Elena had fought beside Rei enough to place absolute trust in his combat intuition. She nodded without hesitation.
"Understood. We strike when they lose their balance."
Rei focused, keeping the butt end of his scythe firmly planted against the floor as he activated his new skill.
"Terrain Manipulation!"
At his command, the ground where he and Elena stood remained level, but every other surface within a ten-meter radius suddenly plummeted by ten centimeters.
A human or a nimble beast would have adjusted their balance instinctively to such a small shift. However, the Stone Puppets were golems with dull cognitive faculties. They stepped forward only to find the floor had vanished beneath them. Their heavy stone feet met empty air, and all three constructs collapsed forward in a heap.
"Now!"
Rei shouted as he wrenched his scythe from the dirt and lunged forward. Set bounded beside him, and Elena’s whip-sword lashed out in its whip-like state.
"Guruuuuuu!"
Set let out a roar, generating two water balls thirty centimeters in diameter. The spheres flew with immense force, bursting against the fallen puppets and peppering the area with stone shards.
I thought so yesterday, but this is how they’re supposed to act! Rei thought, catching the display from the corner of his eye. He swung the Death Scythe toward one of the fallen constructs.
"Power Slash!"
Against an enemy of stone, Rei didn't try to slice; he aimed to crush. The heavy blow pulverized the Stone Puppet’s torso, snapping the construct in half exactly as he had intended. He was getting better at venting the impact through the weapon; while he still felt a slight pang of vibration in his wrists, the burden was significantly lower than before.
Beside him, Elena’s whip-sword danced through the air. In contrast to Rei’s singular, crushing strike, her blade carved through the stone multiple times, systematically severing limbs, torsos, and heads.
"Guruuuuuu!"
Set brought a massive forepaw down on the puppet it had already damaged with magic, disintegrating the construct in one go. The gryphon’s innate physical strength, further augmented by the Bracelet of Herculean Strength, actually hit with more raw power than Rei’s Power Slash.
The skirmish ended as a total rout. Having finished off the puppets, Rei and Elena looked at each other and shared a small laugh—Rei because Terrain Manipulation had worked perfectly, and Elena because she felt the lingering awkwardness between them vanish the moment their combat instincts synchronized.
"Terrain Manipulation, was it? You’ve certainly acquired a convenient ability," Elena said with genuine admiration.
Rei shook his head with a self-deprecating smile. "It’s got potential, but for now, I can only sink or raise the ground by ten centimeters. Terrain Manipulation."
He demonstrated by planting his scythe again, causing the sunken floor to rise back to its original height.
"I see. Ten centimeters might not sound like much, but against an opponent who doesn't know the skill exists, it’s a guaranteed way to secure a turnaround. No one expects the ground to move beneath them."
Rei nodded, recalling how effectively the puppets had fallen. Elena was right; as long as he kept the skill a secret, it would be a formidable trump card.
"I was hoping to thrust earth spears up from below for a surprise attack, but that’s out of reach for now."
He had learned the skill by destroying the Dungeon Core, making it an incredibly rare ability. Since he couldn't simply level it up by absorbing common magic stones, he’d assumed its growth would be stagnant. But Elena’s insight proved that even at a low level, it was a game-changer.
Satisfied, Rei began storing the magic stones and salvageable stone parts into his Misty Ring. Between Rei, Elena, and Set, they possessed enough physical strength to finish the looting process in minutes.
I’ll do the absorption later, Rei decided. Normally, he would have absorbed the stones immediately, but today was different. The news of the Anomaly Species had brought a surge of adventurers to the surface. Many of them—including those seeking a quick fortune or people like Vihera who just wanted a challenge—would be entering the dungeon soon. He didn't want to be caught in the middle of a magic stone absorption if another party stumbled upon them.
"Let’s get moving. We don't have Byune today, so we need to be extra careful. The traps in the cave sections are getting dangerous."
"Agreed. I was quite startled by those falling stalactites earlier. The first five floors were nothing like this."
They fell into their marching formation: Set and Iero in the lead, with Rei and Elena following close behind. Without another word, the party stepped deeper into the cavern.
"If we follow this path, we’ll hit a T-junction. We need to go right," Elena said, consulting her map.
"Guru," Set chirped in acknowledgment.
They pressed on, identifying and bypassing several traps using the knowledge Byune had shared. They couldn't disarm them like she could, but they were able to avoid pressure plates hidden in the dirt or step over tripwires set just above the ground.
Progress was slow but steady. Strangely enough, they encountered no other monsters after that initial skirmish. Four hours of vigilant trekking eventually brought them to the stairs leading down to B8F.