Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

156 – The Attack and Defense of the Hardest Dungeon by the Strongest Group of Adventurers Part 1

The sixth stratum – The Realm of Aquatic Monsters and the Depths.

Originally, the sixth stratum is one where pathways made of sand are spread out across a Field of water and Adventurers are to walk across them to progress.

They will be assaulted by merpeople, fish folk, and aquatic Demi-Beasts from beneath the surface of the sea.

In addition, the sand pathways are spread out like a maze and it becomes difficult to choose the correct path while dealing with all the Monster attacks.

If they choose the wrong pathway, they’ll be stuck in the worst scenario of coming up to a dead end while being pressed by Monsters behind them, all while there is no escape because there is nothing but sea surrounding them.

This time, that has been greatly renovated.

The largest change is the pathways… No, that’s not exactly right.

I should probably say that the whole Field has changed.

Until recently, the sand pathways spread out on top of the ocean but…

…in the new sixth stratum, the sand pathways go through the sea itself.

It’s like that place that I’ve been to before, that aquarium place. It’s very similar to those tunnel-like passageways where everything but the floor is made of glass.

Rather than giving the sense of walking through the insides of an aquarium, this is more like a Dungeon where they walk through the actual sea.

The Adventurers have to be on guard in all directions.

On the aquatic Monster’s side, this allows them to attack the Adventurers from every direction.

Furthermore, in order to deal with Aerial’s Spatial Awareness, a system was put in place where we will wait until the Adventurers reach a fork in the road, and then we’ll block the passage with water.

Even if he were to read the path the wind tells him beforehand, we can block the path with water at that point in time, essentially nulling his ability to lead them down the correct path.

The idea of the Monster enthusiast Floor Boss, the Ruler of the Waters Vepar, has been evolved.

However, in terms of results, not a single Adventurer in the group was defeated.

The MVPs in this battle were mainly five people.

First is Aerial and Ewan who both deployed a wind wall on the surface of the wall of water along the passageway.

With this, they have effectively cut off the surprise attacks that could have come from any direction. The Monsters would have to go through a process of destroying the wind wall if they want to reach the Adventurers, and by the time they achieve that, the Adventurers are already ready to intercept them.

Of course, this is within our expectations. In the process of traveling down the long, long passageway, the two Heroes will be constantly consuming their Magical Energy. That alone is extremely beneficial for us in the battle.

What we didn’t expect was what Wraith and…the revived Herv would do.

The two of them willingly jumped out of the passageways, right into the sea.

Wraith did it in order to look for the correct route from the outside, while Herv jumped out in order to fight all the aquatic Monsters.

The Monsters of the sixth stratum were thrown into chaos.

Wraith put his Water Magic to practical use by creating an area around him where water cannot enter, but Herv simply free dove.

Just like that, she crushes the fish folk, one swing from her fist caused the Monsters to explode despite being underwater, she would pluck the arms off of a giant octopus or squid Demi-Beast until they are defeated, and when she is surrounded by weapon-wielding mermen, she decimates them all.

The Seamonster Forneus appeared in front of Wraith, who was searching for the correct path.

He is a shark Demi-Beast who boasts a size as large as a high-rise building, a Monster who can understand human speech.

Wraith intercepts him with Wind Magic and Water Magic, but Forneus takes them head-on and just keeps approaching Wraith.

That large lifeform almost bit into Wraith with sharp teeth.

Someone hit him from the side.

It was Fran.

When she saw Wraith getting attacked, she busts through the wind barrier created by her allies and jumped into the sea, propelled by her massive right arm, she reaches Forneus and punches him.

It was an attack that could have caused a tidal wave, Forneus’s upper half shook as he was hit.

However, he has worked in service of the Demon King Castle since the time when my master was on active duty. He’s used to strong people and powerful attacks.

He immediately shook his head after Fran’s attack and…ate her.

However, this was an attack that was meant to crunch her with his teeth.

Fran used her quick wit to swim forward in order to avoid the teeth.

In other words, Fran entered Forneus’s mouth willingly.

No matter how sturdy a living organism is, the same cannot be said about its insides. There are parts of the body that simply cannot be tempered.

A loud, dull thump could be heard ringing in the sea. No, not from the sea. The sound came from Fran hitting Forneus from within him.

He still tries to drown Fran by swallowing a large amount of water. Or perhaps he was trying to spit her out. Either way, it didn’t go well for him.

Wraith froze the area around his mouth.

The Water Hero wasn’t trying to save his childhood friend, rather he believed that she could defeat the enemy from within.

And his belief became reality.

Forneus’s belly burst open as Fran emerged from there.

These two ten-year-olds, with their abnormal attack power and adaptability as well as their mutual trust in each other, have defeated Forneus.

No, this has nothing to do with their age. Those two are just strong. Plain and simple.

After that, Wraith returned Fran to the passageway and confirmed the correct path.

Aerial and Ewan consumed a large amount of their Magical Energy protecting their allies as they reached the Floor Boss Area.

A fleet of something mysterious navigated in the sea towards them, but Herv destroyed them all single-handedly.

In the Floor Boss fight, Scathach, who had been conserving his Magical Energy up to that point, unleashed a maximum strength lightning strike, defeating Vepar’s subordinates.

There were some who were on the verge of defeat, but with so few numbers, the Adventurers broke through in the end with no casualties.

In regards to the results of the battle, Forneus said「It appears I have more training to do.」calmly and laughed.

The beautiful mermaid Vepar said「How vexing… I’ve run so many simulations, yet that insane group just… Fine, I shall teach them to fear the deepest darkest depths next time.」with a burning passion for revenge.

「That reminds me.」

Back in the present, in the living room.

The discussion had reached a stopping point, an opportunity which Lily used to interject.

「That seventh stratum battle was quite surprising.」

She said as she graciously carries her cup to her lips.

「…Ah, yeah. We were surprised as well. We knew it’d be tough, but we didn’t know it would be that bad…」

The seventh stratum – the Realm of Sky and Steep Trials.

Pathways spread out in midair, while Birdmen and Monsters who had wings from the start would assault the Adventurers.

If this was all there was to it, it would simply be the sky version of the sixth stratum, so of course, it has its own unique characteristics.

The seventh stratum’s concept is like the good old Dungeon Clears where there are traps, riddles to solve, and an outrageous reset mechanic, where you go back to the starting point.

Also, when an Adventurer falls off the path, or more precisely when their entire body is lower than the pathway itself, they shall experience falling forever, forcing the system to use the Give Up function and release their consciousness from their Avatars.

Falling off the path when trying to solve a riddle is an exception and they will be instead returned to the starting point.

The revival rights they attained from Clearing the second stratum were used on Ewan.

The revival rights they attained from Clearing the fourth stratum were used on Herv.

We’ve made them use all of their revival rights so far.

「To think that the seventh stratum that we labored so hard for would be so easily Cleared…」

With the revival rights they attained from the sixth stratum Clear…they revived Margret.