We continued our way through the current floor. At the moment when we entered the thirty nine floor we encountered different monsters, a group of mantis monsters, their bodies made of crystal.

They quickly noticed their presence as they suddenly disappeared from my view. My eyes immediately darted at my surroundings, attempting to track their movements.

Out of nowhere, a slash appeared within the end of my vision. I positioned my shield to protect myself, I ended up tanking the attack. Although my shield had no scratches, it was only because I reacted before it was too late.

Arakawa shot arrows at the mantises but to no avail, they were far too quick to hit. Not to mention how they could leap in high altitudes and descend just as fast.

Due to this, she was having a hard time hitting them. Also the open area made it even harder to hit the target. The unpredictability of the monsters was unlike us humans who moved with a purpose.

Arakawa clicked her tongue as she continued shooting arrows. The arrows were noticeably easier to evade. With her getting frustrated, she was shooting arrows for the sake of it, not to hit the targets.

Cynthia on the other hand was doing much better as she could match the speed of the monsters, her problem was her lack of strength. Since until now she utilized a hit and run like style, the monster's speed matching hers doesn’t let her continue such strategy.

Whenever she tried to retreat, the monsters caught it in no time. This left her with no other choice, but to continue engaging in battle.

This was all good because Arakawa was supporting. However with her current form, Cynthia was bound to get overwhelmed.

Luckily Rick came to the rescue as he shot light arrows at the mantis, who were not able to react in time, as such met their end.

“Thank you,” said Cynthia.

“No problem!”

Cynthia placed her hand over her chest—

She sure lacked one.

Heh.

Ahem.

Anyways, like I was saying Cynthia placed her hand over her chest and took a deep breath, one probably out of relief.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Rona approach Arakawa and whispered something. Arakawa sighed, shaking her head yet didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. She shrugged and left to pick up the rewards for killing the monsters.

As there wasn’t much to do, we continued exploring the area. We encountered more monsters of similar nature, the battles getting better than the last. They seem to be leading quicker than I expected.

With this we finally made it towards the end, a strange looking door blocking our way. It wasn’t a gigantic door yet it did carry an aura like one. There weren't any statues that would suddenly come to life guarding the door. Simply put, we could easily open the door without needing to fight someone for the right to enter.

I inspected my gear for any signs of damage. Hm. I’ll be fine. The damages aren’t enough to warrant any worry. Perhaps it will change after fighting this boss.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

There wasn’t any form of conversation between us, I sensed the nervousness from them. Even Rick who was supposed to be accustomed to the dungeon, which wasn’t surprising considering the lack of experience from us.

Without informing them, I walked towards the door. I put my sword in my sheath, and then placed my hand on the door handle. I put my hand in and pulled the door. The door was quite heavy as I had to use more of my strength to move it.

Finally opening it, the entrance creaked as dust almost got into my eyeballs which would’ve been a horrible thing if it happened. I gazed at Leon and cocked my head at the door, Leon nodded, and held the door open to leave my hands free.

I ran my hand through my hair, leaving my hand in the middle of my hair. I sighed, putting my hand on my sword sheath. I’ll have to do this, the fight won’t be an easy one since I’ll have to be supporting my teammates.

I proceeded to walk in front of the group as the rest followed me. Once everyone got in, Leon let the doors close themselves. The only light source was gone, a tiny light being visible at the end of the dungeon.

I unsheath my sword, ready to engage in combat. I don’t think it’s wise to suddenly announce our presence by lighting a candle or any light source, well, if it wasn’t obvious by the loud sound of the door.

We made it to the end of the narrow passage, dots of fire began popping as if acknowledging our existence. The dots of fire were taper candles being lit by an unknown source.

I can steal those.

Ah, pretend you never heard that.

Anyways the area was a square like space with strange markings on the ground. It reminded me of a place where gladiators fight. Off topic, but I remember hearing of something like that being opened or something along those lines.

I scanned the rest of the location, in a corner of the room I saw a group of rats seemingly hiding on the corner. I simply shot a low level fire spell and burned all of them, one of them managed to escape so I simply stepped on it.

A slight squishy sensation was felt on my foot before it felt a bit rough, I assumed it was its flesh. I heard a tiny cry from the rat, but I ignored it as I lifted my foot and stomped on it, moving it around to finalize the job.

It’s strange to encounter rats—no scratch that, rats reproduce so fast that they can almost live anywhere due to how they work. Plus it doesn’t really matter, this was a normal rat not a monster rat, there’s a clear difference. This is why I easily killed it as it had no strength to fight back.

Hm?

There seems to be baby rats in this corner. Were they feeding the baby rats? From what I’m seeing they are about less than a week old as they can barely move, most are cuddling with each other for warmth.

The baby spiders are about the same size. It’s more telling of how the baby spiders are monsters unlike these baby rats. Each of them were gray, and had a tiny pink tail.

Squish.

I crushed them. I stained my shoes with the blood of these detestable creatures. Not only do these fuckers carry a lot of diseases, they also are a pain in the ass to deal with.

The only thing about these creatures is for them to be our test subjects. That’s why there’s a whole word dedicated to them, lab rats. Look, I have nothing against them, but at the same time, you have to realize it’s better without these animals.

Back to the baby rats, I lifted my foot, revealing the figures of dead rats staring on the ceilings as their intestines were being opened, drops of blood covering the baby rats.

I really had to dirty my shoes to kill these things, I should just stab them with my sword. Nah, they’re not worthy of such a thing. Well, I sure am putting a lot of emphasis on these things. I should probably continue my explanation.

Speaking of explanations, the rest did not bat an eye to my actions. It is agreed on by most of the world that everyone hates rats. If I see one more of these damn creatures in my house then I’m going to exterminate their race.

Fuck rats and mice.

But hey, that doesn’t apply to a certain thing if you know what I mean.

Yeah, demi humans get a pass since they can actually think unlike these brain dead shits. And before you say how they’re very smart animals, I know, I just fucking hate them. Just joking, I would never hate them. I just dislike them, hate is too strong of a word.