I looked around and saw that I had wiped out all the initial monsters, but my Danger Sense hadn't gone down yet. That was just the first wave, and there could be a demon or a Champion coming from the lower layer.
After deploying the second round of stone plates, I pushed Mana into them. I figured out the timings beforehand to slightly delay their activation, making them all activate simultaneously. I withdrew to the tunnel's opening. Monsters poured from above and below the passage. Also, from the side chambers that had reset as well. It was a veritable horde.
From my experience with the war mech and my first team, I knew how such things worked. If they used enough Mana, it would trigger the nearby chambers. This was the first time triggering a response from another layer, however.
But that was fine. My sense of combat had become quite strong. I could tell Lanner, who was behind me, was incredibly nervous. But unless there was an Abnormal or demon, I was confident about my traps to wipe out most monsters.
They activated, drawing in surrounding Mana. Then, fire spread out in a giant arc, consuming the monsters. Some stronger ones got through burnt or they had Fire Resistance. Either way, I was ready. I used a dagger to carve the last line on the Mana cores one after another and throw them.
I was glad I had experience wielding weapons in both hands, since I had my dagger in my left hand. Explosions occurred just behind the massive wall of fire. The stone plates would break apart soon, but it would wipe out most of the monsters.
Explosions went off. The Mana cores drew the monsters, so even if I didn't aim perfectly, the monsters died. The monsters also had to climb a slope because the massive cavern sloped toward the passage.
Lanner used his wands to take out the flying monsters along with Ozy. Thankfully, there weren't too many to deal with.
The fire wall failed in several locations, and the tide of monsters wasn't slowing down. The people expected that with this unique passage.
"Retreat," I called out loudly. We were near the tunnel entrance, so there wasn't that great a distance.
I activated the second round of stone plates I had carved, creating a second flame barrier as we retreated into the tunnel. Ozy darted in and flew behind me. I kept walking backwards, pulling out carved Mana cores, making a cut to activate the runes on them, and then throwing them.
"Seventeen left," Lanner called out. He had gone through several of his wands. Unfortunate, but killing flying monsters was vital. I didn't want to give up too much ground too quickly and get overrun and killed.
We repeated the process as monsters rushed forward into the flames, incinerating themselves. I had thought about why other teams or individuals hadn't used this kind of strategy in the dungeon before we had started this battle.
The answer was complete lack of control. If most of these monsters did not focus on Cold Resistance, this plan would not have worked so well. The range of monsters would have allowed more to get past the flames with only minor damage. One mistake would wipe us all out. Perhaps some teams tried this and died.
There was also the risk of the dungeon responding. The dungeon has screwed me over twice already. So, I didn't underestimate it in the slightest.
We retreated to the third line of defense as the horde of monsters increased. The uneven ground was being turned into smooth molten stone. The heat was rising quickly in the tunnel as well from all the fire.
"Ozy!" I focused on what I wanted my pet to do. Air pulled in from behind us moved towards the runic traps and monsters. That made it slightly easier to breathe and reduced the heat.
The third wall of flames finally stopped, and there were no more monsters. All of them were wiped out.
"Wow, that is a lot of experience," Lanner muttered.
I could only sigh mentally at that. I had explained that he should only check every three months; otherwise, he would focus too much on the numbers and not on important things. Apparently, he couldn't resist.
"Pay attention to our surroundings. Don't space out," I ordered him harshly. If he wanted to check, he could do so after combat. Now was not the time.
"Should we go forward?" Lanner asked after a minute.
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"No. Just wait and stay on guard,"
My Danger Sense had only gone down slightly. If I were a demon, I would wait for whoever set off all these things to ambush them.
I then realized something. Since I could occasionally see some daylight coming through the large passage, that meant something locked the passage chamber in place.
"We are leaving."
"What?"
"We are leaving for a while and then will come back and check on the passage chamber in a few days."
"Why? Didn't we wipe out the monsters?" Lanner asked. He was too naïve. He hadn't faced an opponent who could think.
"Perhaps, let's go."
"What about all the cores?"
"Most of them would have rolled into the passage from the slope. The rest in this tunnel, leave them."
While it felt like a waste, that was a good way to die. My Danger Sense wasn't lying to me. There was something incredibly dangerous in the entire situation.
We moved away from the passage chamber and retreated into a snow-themed chamber we had already cleared. We had also cleared the other nearby chambers, so nothing would attack us from behind.
My Danger Sense wasn't decreasing. It was going up slightly. I pulled out my sword and brought it up. Lanner said nothing as he readied his wand.
There was something hiding in this chamber. I carefully scanned everything, including above me. Shadow Vision picked up a slight distortion. I made sure not to linger on it while scanning. Whatever was hiding was large, and I suspected it was probably the demon I had fought while returning to the dungeon entrance.
"You sense anything?" Lanner asked after a minute.
"Stay on guard, no matter what."
I pulled an emergency stone plate out of my spatial storage. I swung it in front of me and pushed Mana through the runic structure. A lance of fire shot out at the being hiding in stealth.
I had aimed slightly to the side to force it to dodge in a specific direction. "Lightning Beam!"
I hit the being, and its stealth skills shattered completely. It was the demon from before. Ozy came in from above and engulfed the demon in ice while electricity locked its body up.
I rushed forward as the demon broke free of the ice binding it. I swung my blade, but it was already retreating. "Lightning Beam!"
I dodged to the side and circled the demon. I moved to place myself between the demon and Lanner. Lanner didn't have the speed or reaction time to hit such an opponent. He was already moving to keep me between the demon and himself. Good, he hadn't completely forgotten what I had told him.
The demon rushed at me, and I retreated several steps as I parried the large demon's hands, which had nails like knives.
"Vibration Blade."
The demon lost a single finger as I activated the skill. Ozy flew in behind it and unleashed Toxic Breath.
"Ward."
"Lightning Beam."
The demon staggered under the attack, and I was ready. I whipped out the gnomish wand I had been gifted and unleashed the tier 4 Explosion at close range with my offhand. The demon tried to dodge, but the wand quickly unleashed the spell along with my Lightning Beam.
While the demon had thought ahead about our next fight and had clearly improved, I had thought about our next fight as well. The power of a wand was in its ability of surprise and simultaneously attack.
The blow struck the demon's left hip, sending him flying away. I stumbled back several steps from the force of the Explosion. The demon had lost one leg and a chunk of its chest. I tucked the wand away.
It was my victory. Without a leg, the demon couldn't escape or move properly. That was why I had aimed slightly lower with the wand rather than at its hands or upper torso. I wanted to be sure that I could end this monster.
"Lightning Beam. Fireball. Lightning Beam. Fireball."
I hit the demon with a barrage of spell skills at a distance, one after another. While heavily wounded and crippled, the demon was still impossibly strong. One mistake and it would definitely take the chance to take me down as well. I would not give it a single shred of hope.
The moment my Danger Sense plummeted; I stopped using spell skills. I was quite low on Mana, but this was one fight I couldn't afford to hold back in the slightest. Otherwise, that would be asking for death.
As I walked over, Ozy hovered nearby. The demon was still alive. I swung my Reforged Beginner's Blade, decapitating the monster. It still wasn't dead.
"You can eat it," I told Ozy.
That was the best use of the demon's core. If it could come back after losing its head, I didn't want to take any chances. Better to let Ozy consume the demon's monster core and hope that it created a qualitative change.
Lanner slowly came over as Ozy ripped chunks of flesh off to get to the core inside the monster. "What was that?"
"A demon. A thinking monster. I had faced it before. I told you about it. Apparently, it didn't forget about me and had some kind of tracking skill."
Ozy ripped the core out of the burnt chest of the demon. It had a yellow core. That meant the demon was between levels 150 and 200. I had suspected as much, but it was good to get confirmation.
The real threat of the demon came from its ability to think and use skills complexly. That was why I would place it at a similar level to a green-core monster. As Ozy opened his mouth slightly wider to consume the core, I could feel the danger disappear.
Ozy swallowed the core. Perhaps there would be value in keeping it and studying it. Maybe set up a container where only the head of the demon would grow back so I could question it for information about demons.
But that was too risky. Once I went after the demon to kill my mother, I would come back to this continent and hunt one down and figure out any racial characteristics or knowledge that might be useful.
Right now, I was too weak to capitalize on a thinking monster. That was just asking for trouble. Better to let Ozy consume the demon's core and hope it would benefit him.
I considered whether I wanted to salvage anything from the demon for Alchemical purposes. I broke out my processing tools. There were blood and bones. Also, the nails on the hands were surprisingly intact. It is a shame I didn't have the skills to Alchemically extract a skill.
The tracking skill the demon had used to find me would have been insanely useful.