The dungeon’s cavernous setting made it hard to traverse.
It was hard to differentiate whether there were two tunnels or if it was a single tunnel split in half by a row of interconnected columns.
Worse, there were more passages than there were people, after all.
It’s not like they could split up and explore each path either.
Thus, they could only choose one at random and check it out until the end.
Of course, Raive already told them that his power was on cooldown, so he couldn’t figure out which path was the correct one.
He further claimed that he could only use his skill again in two hours.
While exploring, their formation was simple.
At the forefront were Raive and Shymine standing side by side, ensuring that they had no blind spots. In the middle, about three meters away, stood the healer, Hershey. And finally, about two meters further behind her were Therese and Khamish.
Their positioning ensures that Hershey would remain safe at all times, even if the attack came from both sides.
"Monsters ahead!"
With their vigilance, they wouldn’t miss even those plant monsters camouflaging as part of the rugged wall.
As soon as Shymine identified one, she would then fire an icicle lance, piercing the large bag-like portion of the plant monster. Once that’s out of the way, Therese would follow it up with three floating swords chopping the rest into finer pieces, ensuring the enemy’s death.
"This... feels more like a chore than exploration."
Khamish, who was just watching from behind, couldn’t help but comment.
After all, only Shymine and Therese were doing all the attacking.
Khamish was closer to a baggage carrier, or a porter, while Raive was more like a strategist or a leader in their party. Thus, inevitably, they felt like they were doing too little—much like how Hershey felt before.
"Stop."
While such thoughts were circling their heads, Raive raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop. Then, he pointed forward, making everyone stare warily.
"It looks like there’s a large space ahead. Be prepared for any sort of sneak attack once we enter."
Normally, he would want Shymine to use her skill to freeze the entire entrance before they stepped in. However, he could see that she was already starting to get short of breath. Although she was trying to hide it, using her skill repeatedly was making her tired.
Thus, he couldn’t force her to do it.
If she went out of commission, then their team’s firepower would drop to a tenth, if not less. Inside a green dungeon, they couldn’t afford that.
Carefully, the entire party moved, one step at a time.
They kept watching the surroundings, looking for signs of life or any indicator of monsters nearby. They slowly headed toward the center, watching the thick moss around them carefully.
And then, right after reaching the middle of the space, one of them found something.
"B-Brother..."
Hershey, who noticed it first, tugged at Raive’s clothes.
Then, she pointed her trembling finger up, to where she was already pointing her flashlight, and asked. "What’s that...?"
"Hm?"
Raive reflexively followed her finger, then squinted.
At the end of her light, in the middle of the ceiling roughly 5 meters high... was something. Raive couldn’t see it clearly, as only a small section of it was lit, but...
"N-No way..."
He quickly understood what it might be.
Without delay, he turned back, waving his hand toward everyone.
"QUICK, RETRE—!"
But before he could finish his words... The worst scenario came.
Something dropped from the ceiling.
Right on top of everyone.
"Kuh...!"
In panic, Shymine waved her hand, creating a dome-shaped cover over all of them. She made it thick with a low center of gravity, ensuring it wouldn’t get toppled easily.
However.
CRACK!
The ice she made wasn’t strong enough to hold the "thing’s" weight.
It easily broke, causing a giant root to slam over their group.
Raive was lucky enough to jump out of the way in time, but he could do nothing but watch as the giant root slammed straight down.
"Ugh..."
A faint groan escaped from Shymine as she was pinned by it. So heavy that she felt as if her internal organs would spill out of her mouth.
It wasn’t just her either.
Khamish got hit in the head and fell unconscious.
Just by looking, it was hard to tell if he was even still alive.
Therese only had a leg hit, but it broke beautifully, revealing white bone from her snapped shin. Her face was pale from the pain, but she didn’t even let out a single grunt.
Hershey, miraculously, wasn’t hurt.
However, she saw how injured the others were, making her gasp in panic.
"Sister Shymine! Mother Therese! Uncle Khamish!" She shouted, calling to the three.
Of course, none of them replied.
She had a decision to make now. Which one would she heal first?
"Help Shymine first!" But as if to lessen her mental burden, Raive shouted a command.
It was a logical choice, since she was basically their main fighter. If they lost her, then only death awaited them.
But Hershey’s expression stiffened.
She looked at Therese, then to Khamish, then back at Shymine. All of them were injured, but Raive told her to prioritize Shymine. While healing her, there’s a chance that the other two’s condition would worsen.
She was conflicted.
And Raive could see exactly what was happening.
’Shit...!’
Raive cursed and was about to supplement his command, but then Hershey moved.
She ran to Shymine’s side, placing both hands over her body. Within moments, they began releasing a faint silvery-white glow while she shouted to her ears.
"Sister! Please hang on, I’m healing you...!"
It should take a bit of time before Shymine would recover. And during that time, only Raive could move. Only he could protect all four.
Raive frowned as he turned toward the "source."
The thing that fell from the ceiling.
He pointed his flashlight at it, and along with the other four scattered lights, he finally figured out the shape of the enemy.
It... looked like a slightly dried-up blood-red rose bud.
The size was insane, though.
The entire bud was about two meters, way taller than Raive was. And the "roots" that hit the others were actually vines, each extending to a dozen meters at least. Each up to a foot in diameter, and weighing hundreds of kilograms from end to end.
But that wasn’t what Raive was worried about.
The dungeon’s theme, based on all the enemies they’d killed along the way, was carnivorous plant monsters. In short, this one, too, should be just like that.
However, no matter where Raive looked, he couldn’t see anything resembling a mouth.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
But that was a given.
When the entire rosebud monster moved, using its vines like legs and raising its body, the lower body was finally revealed. And at the same time, solved one of his questions.
After all...
A giant mouth, complete with rows of razor-sharp teeth, almost like a shark’s, was staring right into his face.
Seeing the horrendous monster, enough to be nightmare fuel, he could only say one phrase.
"Fuck this shit...!"