White palace(corrected)

'I have to be fast!'

Dropping another load of equipment as fast as he could, Mark was checking the situation with 'monster detection', only to stiffen up more and more.

By now the monsters had arrived, and the other members of the exploration, had set up a defensive wall, to allow those in charge of lowering items, to do so safely, but that didn't mean there was no danger to them.

The number of monsters far outnumbered those of the adventurers, so some were able to break through, slowing their work.

"Shit!"

As he brought down the last of his equipment, he revealed a monster that was fast approaching him. With no other options, he let go of his grip on the rope, but he didn't have enough time to draw his sword, so he had to defend himself with his arms, falling on his back due to the monster's strength and weight.

'Grrrr!'

A putrid smell of death flooded Mark's nostrils as he used his forearm to block the snout of the monster that was trying to maul his face. The monster or rather the warg, was a level 3 monster with toxic corrosive saliva, living in huge packs.

'Crunch!'

The monster tried to bite him, but Mark moved his head dodging, unfortunately, some of the monster's spit fell on his face, starting to burn his skin. Squinting in pain, he managed to move his legs and placed his foot on the monster's belly, and using all his strength, he lifted it into the air, and with a pull of his arms, he threw it towards the hole, causing it to fall into the void.

Quickly opening a potion, he drank its contents, managing to get some relief from the burning he was feeling in his face, but it seemed that it wasn't the only monster to get through the defenses.

Another warg quickly approached him, but this time he had had enough time to draw his sword and defend himself with it, though he had to take steps back to completely block the force behind the monster's head.

[Host, the monster in front of you falls into the undead category, so electricity has a strong effect on it].

Hearing the Guide's advice, he started firing 'electric dart', but the monster's agility was such that it was difficult to hit it, so he changed his approach, he stopped firing, and had the sword surrounded with electricity. Seeing the threatening weapon, the warg looked wary, but his killer instincts, were greater than its danger instincts, so he charged towards Mark.

Seeing the monster coming, he used 'flashbang' to blind it, but when he tried to stab it, the monster dodged by instinct. Seeing the first attack failed, Mark didn't give up and performed a bottom-up swing, severely injuring the monster's snout thanks to the electricity on the sword.

"Intent!"

Not wanting to let it escape, he used 'intent' to block it momentarily. Because of the monster's strength, 'intent' didn't have much effect, in fact, it only managed to block the monster for a second, but in a battle, that second can completely change the situation.

Caught off guard, the monster had a sword stuck in its head, disappearing in a black cloud.

"Captain! That was the last one!" -While he fought, the others had finished lowering the last few things, while the defensive wall had managed to recover.

"Good! Begin descending."

Now that everything had been descended, the adventurers with the lowest level began to slide down to the next floor, using ropes, and like the upper floor, the lower floor was also infested with monsters, but in addition to wargs, there were also bloody hyenas, with a massive build and reddish-black fur, on the cusp of level 3.

"What a warm welcome." -Mark joked, landing on the 29th floor.

Shortly after they descended, the others who were covering their descent arrived as well. When they all arrived at the 29th floor, they didn't wait for a second and started running towards the next shaft, which was slightly away.

Since the strength and amount of monsters had increased, it was useless to form balanced groups, since even level 3 could hardly do anything on this floor, so they were running in spear formation, so they could penetrate the wall of monsters with the main group, while the body of the formation, was defended by level 4 adventurers.

'I have to increase my strength even faster, I can't continue like this.' -Irritated of his situation, he could only see the others fighting while he was being protected.

Even if he possessed a strength capable of fighting level 3 monsters, if too many of them appeared, it would be impossible for him to handle. All he could do now was to electrocute the monsters that managed to get through, but he never had the chance to kill them since the others would take care of them.

Even though the number of monsters was high, the situation of the exploration group was still normal. Of course, there were injuries, but because of the formation they were going with, it made everyone's job easier. The reason Finn didn't take this approach from the start was because it was tiring for them.

Even though they were level 6, it didn't mean they didn't get tired and if they were to proceed with this pattern from the start, they would waste too much stamina, leading to more rest and necessary expenses, plus the second reason was to grow the other members. If they did everything themselves, the others would have little chance of growth and would begin to develop a dependency on them for every situation, something Finn did not want.

The group descended floors quickly thanks to the wells, making the actions Mark had to take in this area fairly repetitive: look for the well, drop items down, descend to the next floor, and repeat. He hadn't had a chance to fight other than the initial wargs, all he would have done was back up the others with his magic, which could momentarily block the movements of the monsters.

For him it seemed that he was doing too little, not knowing, however, that his support was of considerable help, making it easier for the others to kill the monsters.

The further down they went, the greater the diversity of monsters. They were mainly rampaging beast monsters, at the 30th floor, t-rex-like monsters with a strength of an initial level 4 had started to appear but it made little difference to Mark, as his job was not to kill monsters.

"Finally, I can't smell that disgusting stench anymore."

Descending to the 37th floor, Mark was able to breathe decent air again, without that wild beast smell anymore. The others descended with him, landing in a room surrounded by white walls.

"I know you're tired, but we can rest on the 38th floor. Don't let your guard down, especially now that we're on the deep floors." -Shouted Finn.

As he had said, the 37th floor gave way to the deep floors and it was called the White Palace because all the walls were white. It was a floor that gave even level 5 parties problems, due to the strength of the monsters that were all level 4, but it wasn't just that.

White Palace was divided into 5 areas by circular walls, and the innermost one was where the boss and the entrance to the next floor sat. Fortunately, Aiz had already defeated Udaeus a while ago and since it had not been 3 three months since its death, they wouldn't have to waste time, fighting it, but would have to go through a complicated maze to get through the 5 zones. Furthermore there was to consider the dimensions of each corridor which were much larger, allowing more monsters to appear at the same time, which combined with the low light and the superior intelligence that the monsters had, made that floor one of the most dangerous.

At the moment they are in one of the many rooms on the 37th floor of zone 5. Usually, there were groups of monsters in these rooms, but there were instances when they were free, allowing the adventurers to rest for a while, although they could not stay more than five minutes before monsters started to arise.