Phase One Meteor Shower

—

Two days later.

Will and Leah stood on the 60th floor of the Abyss of the End. Since Leah was a former member of “Cradle,” she had used some special channels to obtain a key to enter the 60th floor of the dungeon—the final BOSS floor was on the 70th, meaning they still had ten floors to clear. If they were with their original party, they could have gone straight to the 70th floor. Alas, the “former member” privilege only stretched so far.

“So quiet.”

The 60th floor was exceptionally desolate. The dungeon environment of the Abyss of the End was somewhat like the depths of a snowy mountain crevice, with smooth ice surfaces, bottomless downward cracks, and constant gusts of chilling air. Monsters even emerged directly from deep within the ice surface with a whoosh.

“It wasn’t this quiet before. It became like this after two consecutive S-rank adventure parties failed their raids.” Leah stretched her staff forward. The staff lit up with warm flames, allowing Will, who had been rubbing his hands together, to finally lower them.

“Two S-rank adventure parties? Are S-rank adventure parties so cheap now? If they can’t even clear this, can they still be called S-rank?” Will stepped forward. A small snow ghost suddenly emerged from his right, and he dispatched it with a single fireball.

“S-rank adventure parties have inflated. In the three months after your demise, they’ve inflated by over threefold… Tsk, why does that phrasing sound so weird?” Leah finished, scratching her head. But she found she truly couldn’t find a more suitable word to describe the time of Will’s disappearance.

The two tried their best to avoid combat, conserving their resources, and followed the shortest route they had already scouted, reaching the 61st floor in no time. Will also discovered… it wasn’t just the “S-rank” adventure parties that had inflated. The dungeons had too.

After Carver and Treya reached their secret “official-business cooperation” agreement, Treya, as the new Empress, intentionally allowed the Adventurer’s Guild to expand. Naturally, the royal family received a lot of money and resources from the Adventurer’s Guild, which were then used to improve residents’ lives. This cooperation caused the dungeon’s floor difficulties to inflate wildly. The current 60th floor even felt like the old 30th floor. However, the 70th-floor BOSS still retained its 70th-floor difficulty. Lowering the difficulty of ordinary floors was perhaps also a way for dungeons to develop.

Treya was a good Empress. So this reciprocal effect was indeed half successful—her half. But… Carver was definitely not a good person. Behind his prosperity, he was constantly finding ways to increase the dungeon’s floor count and the Adventurer’s Guild’s power. Most importantly… he had actually been hiding something. Dungeons and humans could “communicate” and “cooperate.” He had, in effect, monopolized this possibility through his cooperation with the Empress of the “Hall of Death.”

65th Floor.

“Speaking of which, even though I joined your adventure party before… what’s the new party called? Still Morning Star? You seem to like that name quite a bit, didn’t you choose it yourself back then?” This journey was too easy; Leah even started chatting halfway through.

“Default Name.”

“So what is it?”

“Default Name. Just those two words.”

“Are you serious?”

“…I haven’t thought of one. I can change the name anytime anyway, I’ll properly change it later.” Will actually didn’t like the name Morning Star. He had only used that name before because he was following the plot. Now that he had decided not to follow the plot anymore, there was naturally no need to use that name. But… he hadn’t yet thought of a suitable name if all four of them were to return.

68th Floor.

“How’s the consumption? Can we face the 70th floor?” Will was still accustomed to being in logistics, asking Leah.

“Hmph, you underestimate me.”

Leah spun her staff, and it lit up, like a sparkler twirling in her hand during a festival. Her original intention was, of course, to test her mana reserves by filling the staff. But now, it looked… exceptionally like a child who had just learned to use a staff, happily playing with it.

“You’re an adult. Why are you still playing with your staff like a child?”

“I’m over a hundred years old! So what?” Leah even said it with full justification.

70th Floor.

Will stepped in here for the first time. But… when he saw the ice and snow castle rising from the flat ground, he could already imagine the appearance of the Snow Woman and how difficult Leah’s two previous battles had been. The space occupied by the castle alone was the size of an entire dungeon floor. Not to mention its height, which reached four or five stories.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had visitors.”

The Snow Woman’s enchanting voice, seeming to echo throughout the entire space, rang out. She stood on the highest spire of the castle, looking down upon the entire BOSS floor. She seemed to particularly enjoy watching various people attempt to conquer her fortress, only to fail and return. Her long black hair spread out in the air, becoming the sole “different color” amidst the vast white of ice and snow.

Will glanced at her. The Snow Woman had never revealed her name, which was not uncommon among dungeon monsters, leading the outside world to simply call her “Snow Woman” or “Empress of the Abyss of the End.” In fact, using “Snow Woman” wasn’t entirely accurate, as there were many monsters of that race, and her promotion to Empress meant she had unique qualities. But what Will needed most was actually her “name.” He wanted to confirm one thing… was she the Snow Woman who shouldn’t have appeared in the Abyss of the End, but who should have existed in… “Silver River Peak”?

“But—why is it always you? And a witch again! Aren’t you witches tired?!” The Snow Woman spoke, arms crossed, peering down from the castle wall, before shouting at Leah.

“This guy… is she nearsighted, perhaps?” Will commented, looking at her somewhat comical appearance.

“I wanted to ask! Other dungeon BOSSes change up their styles, why are you so stuck in your ways?” Leah flicked her staff, pointing its tip, specifically the pointed top of her witch’s hat, at her.

“What do you know… I, I call this preserving my unique style.”

“You won’t be so stubborn about preserving your unique style after you get blasted!”

“Oh dear. What’s wrong, Miss Witch who failed so many times? You brought seven people before and failed, now you think bringing one person will defeat me?”

“Seven… seven pieces of trash and one good student I personally trained are completely different.” Will listened to the two bickering, thinking that even elementary school arguments were more nutritious than this. They had only fought twice, yet these two were surprisingly “compatible” when arguing.

“First things first, I’m not participating.” Will raised his hand, retreating to the side, finding a relatively safe tree, and honestly hid behind it.

“Will. You’re already here…”

“Mm-hmm.” Will reached out and tossed the corked red liquid bottle from his embrace to Leah. “Teacher, you promised me, you’ll defeat her alone.”

Leah caught the bottle she had yearned for. Just holding it in her palm, she could feel the contact surface warm. However, it wasn’t the time for her to use it. She gripped it tightly and put it into her ring.

“Just this one bottle, use it well, okay?”

“It seems the man Miss Witch found isn’t very reliable either. You need to keep up the good work.” The Snow Woman’s taunts seemed unlimited.

“You can insult me, but you dare insult Will—!” But, since she chose such mockery, Leah didn’t hesitate to open fire. A meteor from the tip of the Staff of Ancient Flame shot towards the Snow Woman’s position.

Will watched Leah put away the potion and then immediately open fire.

“She isn’t using it in Phase One? It seems she’s very confident in the results of her special training.” Then, he looked at the Snow Woman—

The Snow Woman on the castle waved her hand, and a row of crossbows appeared at the top of the wall. At the same time, a faint layer of ice spread across the ground outside the castle. It was like a trap, imposing movement restrictions and raising ice spikes on anyone who stepped on it. So, a confrontation with her was best done by flying.

Will gazed at this defensive strategy. This Snow Woman, this Snow Woman… there was no mistake. It was… the one from the original story. Her personality was very much like a spoiled princess, always speaking sarcastically, so facing Leah was like two cannonballs colliding. But in an actual fight, her aggression was very low, adhering to a “turtle” policy, protecting herself well.

The light at the top of the castle brightened slightly, blocking Leah’s preemptive bombardment.

“From before, you could never get past my ice arrows. Hmm. What will you do this time?” The Snow Woman stood at the edge of the castle wall, waving her hand at Leah below.

In just an instant.

The once bare castle wall instantly formed countless ice crossbows. The ice arrows fired from these crossbows did not directly lock onto Leah, but scattered over a wide area below the castle in a random fashion. Adventurers were not fools; locking onto a single target would allow it to be dodged. And the Snow Woman did not lack raw materials. So she directly chose… blanket bombardment!

“Heh, just like before.” Leah laughed.

But… this time, she didn’t run. She didn’t even fly. She stood on the ice surface; if she didn’t move, no spikes would rise. This gave her enough time to chant.

“Hmm…?” The Snow Woman was also surprised; Leah’s current tactics were too different from before. If she was once an aerial bombardment unit, now she was purely a stationary turret. Who could have… made her change her habits so quickly, and even find… the correct way to conquer?

“Blazing Meteor.”

Light gathered on her staff. Facing the sky full of falling arrows, like ice cones, this Blazing Meteor, whose total energy wasn’t very high, poured out from the staff—each ice arrow, in her eyes, was like the falling leaves from before. And now, she knew how to break through it.

Boom.

The flames spread beyond the ice arrows. It was like a meteor shower descending from the ground onto that sturdy castle! Directly targeting the ice crossbows on the Snow Woman’s castle.

“Hey, hey, hey—when could you shoot so many?!” The Snow Woman hugged her head and squatted down.