Rui glanced at the ice-cold Bellhorn Steel blade in admiration and excitement, the blade's destructiveness to the Whitemane Dust present in the monster's body was greater than he had imagined. He had gained a lot more confidence in dealing with the monsters of the Shionel Dungeon. He hadn't had a chance to use the heating pipe that he had brought with him, but that was more meant for a situation when he was back up against the wall against a larger number.
Rui had to admit that he had grown a little too careless for a moment scanning distant locations away with his Riemannian Echo, that he didn't notice a monster arriving that close to them for quite some time.
He glanced down at the heavily sliced corpse. "But a catoblepas, huh? I heard they were supposed to be annihilated on the earlier floors, but I guess not entirely."
It must have been a straggler that managed to escape into the countless tunnels that existed in the Shionel Dungeon. Unless someone ran into it, they would never know it survived since nobody asides from him could surveil worth a damn inside the Shionel Dungeon.
"Come on, the first floor is just up ahead," Rui helped Kane up as they headed onwards, before eventually reaching their initial destination.
"Woah," Kane muttered when he finally got a look at it. "It's huge!"
The first floor had clearly been cleaned up especially well, to the point that the Shionel Adventurer Guild permitted the temporary occupying of it. Thus several patrons and merchants had set up outlets selling essential items like healing and rejuvenation potions.
Rui could already see that the Shionel Merchant Guild was clearly trying to push in the direction of private ownership and occupation of the Shionel Dungeon even before they started.
He had not forgotten his plan of selling map data of the Shionel Dungeon to the Shionel Merchant Guild, he had already been mapping the Shionel Dungeon in his head, carefully storing all the data that he had gathered with his Riemannian Echo in his Mind Palace.
He intended to put it to good use later on. He had not only been measuring the distance that he traveled relative to his own height which he had a precise measurement of, but he had also been documenting the 'footage' of his Riemannian Echo sense into the Mind Palace, going as far as to timestamp it.
"This does not feel like what I expected from a dungeon, I'm going to be honest," Kane scratched his head.
The overlapping image of a relatively peaceful floor was juxtaposed with the scary and dark image he had inside his head.
The Martial Squires on this floor was a tag bit more relaxed, and there was even a level of security in place, monitoring the tunnels to ensure that nothing came up and to warn the others if something did.
"The second floor's tunnel is that way," Rui gestured to a marked tunnel that let further down. "Let's get going immediately."
Rui kept Riemannian Echo up the entire time as they descended to the second floor.
Yet the change was abrupt.
The air grew more tense. Kane gritted his teeth as he felt his nerves tingling.
Rui narrowed his eyes as he never stopped monitoring their environment with Riemannian Echo.
"Monsters," Rui murmured.
"What?!" Kane whispered back with urgency. "Where?!"
"In all directions," Rui replied softly.
"Are they coming towards us?!"
"No," Rui shook his head firmly. "They're circulating in the tunnels, but they aren't moving towards us, they don't even know that we're here. They have the same limitations, after all. They cannot sense us as vividly."
Rui concentrated as he spotted several monsters lingering around in tunnels in the distance. He wanted to make sure none of them could approach them.
Soon enough, they reached the second floor, yet Rui stopped at a distance from them.
"What's up?" Kane frowned.
"It's time, get ready," Rui replied without expanding further.
Yet Kane understood what he meant, they had discussed their strategy plenty of times in the past, and he knew exactly what needed to be done.
He put his hand on Rui's shoulder before they began moving. Yet both of them disappeared into thin air as they walked towards an entrance into the dungeon.
Kane's eyes widened as they were greeted by dozens of rabbit-like creatures, their eyes were blood red with no pupils of any kind.
Rui and Kane quietly moved past them, without making so much as a peep. Kane looked quite nervous in contrast to Rui's calmness. He knew that Void Step has extremely empowered in the dungeon thanks to senses being jammed, there was zero chance that the bloodfury rabbits would be able to sense their presence.
"URGH!" Kane paused when a human voice grimacing reached them.
The two of them glanced over as they saw three Martial Squires bleeding profusely, being swarmed by the bloodfury rabbits.
"ARGH!" The Martial Squire in the center grimaced as a bloodfury rabbit took a bite out of his leg swiftly.
Kane exchanged a silent glance with Rui, but they never stopped, the technique only worked when they were moving. Rui shook his head and turned away from them.
He generally tended to help people around him if they needed help before his eyes, but that did not apply in risky situations that the people themselves have put themselves in, knowing full well the risks that came with it.
He could not afford to take the risk of helping the Martial Squires around him in the dungeon who may need help, especially when Kane's life was in the balance as well. He simply offered them a prayer as his eyes turned to their objective.
The glowing fruits, rocks, and veins popped out of the floor walls. He had long trained to distinguish between all of them, a nifty skill to have if he needed something specific, he readied his dimensional storage ring as he and Kane executed the maneuver they practiced.