The sight of ruins greeted them upon arrival. Basked beneath the shimmer of the evening sky, broken, crooked steel bars surrounded the parameter of the floating island. Leafless trees and dying bushes stood as an echo of the once lush forest, surrounding the atmosphere in a chilling aura of death.

[ - Floor 2.]

Circe took the lead this time, striding towards the worn path connecting to the next room. While they walked, Circe’s eyes remained glued to the floating paveway by her feet. Some of the steps had gaps in between them, revealing the bottomless orange sky below.

“What do you think would happen if we fall?” Zeke’s voice cut through the silence in the air. Unlike Circe, he didn't show an ounce of worry as he crossed the broken bridge. “Do you think we’d just lose some health and teleport back up like in the game?”

“Whatever the answer is,” Circe responded in a low tone. Soon, they arrived at the gate to the next room. “I don't want to find out.”

Entering the new block, they immediately met with the monsters that lurked within. However, unlike the harpies they’d faced before, these creatures stood almost as tall as Zeke, with eagle-like heads and buffed bodies, their talon hands each gripping worn-out scimitars, the edges dyed red in blood.

[]

[ are alerted to your presence.]

Upon spotting the intruders, the six-foot abominations spread their wings and drove at them with great swiftness despite their body size. Circe’s daggers clashed against the closest enemies’ blade, piercing the air with the sharp sound of metal against metal.

“Oh shit! They're strong!” Circe exclaimed as she put more force into her arms, successfully pushing her opponent back, allowing her to quickly block the sword of another bird warrior beside her.

From what he could see, Zeke counted a total of four aviankins, but he kept the thought at the back of his mind that there could be more hiding elsewhere.

Focusing on the situation at hand first, he raised his staff and shot a beam of energy towards the monster closest to him, while firing magic missiles into two other birds, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Now with some breathing room, Circe activated ‘Assassinate’. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared behind the aviankin. As the bird stumbled forward from the lack of counter force, her daggers etched a deep cross into its back, garnering an ear splitting shriek from the monster.

“!!!” Unexpectedly, the wounded aviankin whirled around with its sword arching through the air. Despite the surprise attack, Circe managed to block it with one of her daggers. If she’d been just a second slower, she would’ve gotten decapitated in an instant. “It's not dead!? What the heck!?”

Before Zeke could respond, his eyes caught a hint of movement from the edge of his vision. Swiftly raising his weapon, he met the other aviankin’s sword with the metallic pole of his staff. “Is it just me, or is there a sudden difficulty spike?”

Since her opponent got inflicted with ‘Open Wound’, Circe felt that her opponent’s strength could no longer match against hers. After swiftly pushing the scimitar away from her face, she dragged her other dagger down the bird’s chest.

[Killed x1 ]

After seeing the death of their comrade, the two aviankins not locked in combat rushed at Circe with their scimitars arching through the air. She parried one with both her daggers before instantly turning to the other. “Zeke…?”

“Busy!” While Circe had her eyes fixed on her targets, the sound of explosion sounding from Zeke’s side spoke of the ongoing battle. Stepping backwards to avoid the timely slashes from the aviankin’s blade, Zeke found a window of opportunity and fired off a magic blast.

But the bird simply raised its scimitar, splitting the energy beam in half as it let the separated bolts brushed past its shoulders. “It blocked again!” Zeke gritted his teeth, a frown creeping up his face. “Try this then!”

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As Zeke retracted his staff, the aviankin thought to use the moment to close in their distance, instead, it suddenly found its limbs bound by an unknown force.

The bird of prey’s eyes allowed it to spot the slight movement of the webs as it tried to move. Despite Zeke’s casting speed, the aviankin’s strength managed to overpowered the webs’ grips, and it raised its blade just in time to block the magical bullet.

Smoke masked the area between them when the attack collided against the edge of the scimitar. But a second later, the monster emerged from the dust, its sword already locked at Zeke as it prepared a horizontal strike.

“Ha,” Seeing the scimitar gleaming under the setting sun, instead of feeling fear, Zeke’s mouth curled up into a wide grin. “I finally got you.”

A powerful force instantly slapped the aviankin back down on the ground, its sword knocked out of its talons upon impact. The thunderous painful cry that followed garnered its allies’ attention, as they immediately shifted their focus away from Circe and dashed towards the mage.

The one closest to Zeke got its back cleaved by Circe’s dagger, while it did not kill it instantly, she managed to stop its momentum for long enough that she could turn her attention towards the last bird. Both her daggers collided against the scimitar, locking it in a stalemate. “Zeke! Shoot the other one!”

“Huh!? I can't cast another spell while I'm using ‘Gravity’!”

“...WHAT!?”

Zeke’s eyes fearfully glanced down at the injured aviankin as it began to rise to its feet. Using its sword to support its wounded body, the bird sent a sharp glare at Zeke. With its last ounce of strength, the warrior threw the scimitar at him, forcing him to move out of the way.

As the sword impaled into the ground where Zeke once stood, the effect of the gravity spell got lifted, allowing the fallen aviankin to stand back up. Luckily, Zeke whirled around just in time to cast another spell, pressing it back down to the ground.

[Killed x1 ]

Soon, the wounded monster fell to its injuries. Now with the threat neutralized, Circe focused her full attention on her opponent. Gritting her teeth through the ache in her arms, she pushed back against the scimitars with all her might, only for the aviankin to fight even harder against her strength.

But Circe only needed those few seconds, as soon as her skill finished its cooldown, she activated it and disappeared behind the creature, letting it stumble forward with its own momentum. This time, she thrust both her daggers through the bird’s chest, instantly killing it.

[Killed x1 ]

“I should have done that from the start.” As Circe internally cursed herself, she shifted her attention to the remaining monster, still struggling to get up from Zeke’s magic. After she pulled her daggers out from the corpse’s body, she threw one of them into the aviankin’s skull.

[Killed x1 ]

“Finally!” Zeke gasped as he sank to the ground, resting both arms on his knees. His hands loosely held onto the Arcane Resonance while he stared blankly at the sight of carnage before him, beads of sweat running down the side of his head. “Ace mobs were supposed to be hard, but the difficulty spike was way too big from those easy harpies…”

Instead of responding, Circe remained silent, eyes locked onto each one of the aviankin’s corpses. “...Hey, we killed all of them, right?”

“Yeah we did, since nothing else is coming out…” Zeke responded as he glanced at Circe, fatigue now prominent in his eyes. But then he suddenly got up to his feet. “Wait,” with a widened gaze, he stared at Circe’s stern face anxiously. “There isn't a notification that said we clear this place. So there's more?”

“Not just that,” Circe opened her status window. After confirming her suspicions, she swiped the panel towards Zeke for him to see. “I got no experience from killing these birds. Now there's surely something wrong with this dungeon.”

Zeke shook his head as he pursed his lips. “...What dungeon mob doesn't give out EXP?”

“From what I know, only summoned creatures from another monster. Like the lich mobs or vampire lords,” Circe’s voice remained unusually calm. “These aviankins surely aren't zombies. I don't know why they're not giving us any EXP either, it could just be bugged like the Tutorial Dungeon.”

Hearing her explanation, Zeke slowly sat back down on the ground, one free hand gripping the side of his head as a frown darkened his expression. “...But the gate isn't open either, so how do we even get out of here?”

‘THUMP.’

‘CREEEAK…!’

Both their heads turned the instant they heard something coming from the closed gate behind them. To their horrors, an unknown behemoth stood behind the tall, broken bars of the ruined aviary, its giant talons slowly pushing the metallic rods to the side.

“What the fuck is that…?” Zeke got up to his feet as he took out one of the mana potions from his inventory, drowning its entire content in preparation for combat.

“It's standing this close yet we still can't take a peek beyond the gates…I can't tell just from the hands, but it's definitely some sort of aviankin.” Circe recalled the dagger she’d thrown back into her grip, eyeing the shadowed monster with vigilance in her poise.

Soon, the creature’s masked form stepped into the afternoon sun. Dark gray and white feathers covered its scar-ridden, muscular body, though it lacked the wings that all the other aviankins possesed. The blood on its bulky armor gleamed menacingly as it eyed them both with its sharp, unwavering gaze.

[ERROR!]

[ is alerted to your presence.]