Dante fell into the ravine.
His body was on the verge of giving in completely; he held Nagasawa's body firmly as he tried to find some place where both could survive.
While one hand was at the waist of the unconscious woman, the other held Durandal, which was being excessively worn.
He projected himself between the corners of the ravine, using Durandal as a stake to hold on.
"ARGH!" Dante's hands were completely broken, but he couldn't let that shake him.
"Damn it! Those arrogant bastards," he cursed, feeling his legs and arms starting to give way slightly.
"There's no way, if I die, she'll die too," he thought, and bit Nagasawa's neck, drawing some blood enough for his regeneration to return slightly. Even if it wasn't enough, it was risky.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he thought, as he saw more boulders the size of golems falling on him; some stone fragments were propelled and hit his head, causing him to lose one side of his skull.
His skull was exposed, and his face began to be engulfed in blood, but quickly his regeneration kicked in and repaired the most severe damage.
GROOONNNN!
Dante immediately looked up and saw the golems being swallowed by the ravine. It seemed like an eternity, but it was only his reaction acting; in fact, not even twenty seconds had passed since he was thrown into the fall.
"DAMN IT!" he shouted loudly and began to conjure a fire spell.
[Plasma Cannon!] He fired his concentrated fire upwards, completely clearing the entire path, but it was futile; he sacrificed almost all of his remaining mana, but at this moment, the walls of the ravine began to give way.
"I'm going to die. Damn it, I'm going to die again!"
As he fell, he looked at Nagasawa's face and embraced her, positioning his body beneath hers to shield her.
"At least I'll die holding an innocent maiden," Dante thought as he prepared for impact.
"Goodbye, Valentina, Morgana," Dante said with a smile as he began to close his eyes and placed Durandal on his back, clearly using the sword to absorb the impact in some way, but he had already accepted his fate.
The last thing he saw was Nagasawa's unconscious face and the moments before; the smiles of the three enraged him.
His mana depleted, his body at its limit, and his consciousness fading away.
Then everything went dark.
Darkness engulfed Dante, and he felt a sharp pain all over his body. Slowly, he began to open his eyes, faintly seeing the image of a woman in his arms.
Before thinking of anything else, he quickly placed his hands on her neck to check her pulse; fortunately, she was still alive. Dante couldn't understand what had happened and how he was still alive, but he considered it luck; he would have died for sure otherwise.
He tried to look around, but his vision was slightly blurred, as if his eyes had been damaged. He tried to wipe them, but his hands were dirty with his blood and dirt.
He wanted to regain some strength, but if he were to suck Nagasawa's blood, she might die.
"What do I do?" he didn't know how much time had passed since the fall, but he wanted to believe it hadn't been more than a few minutes.
Despite his corrupted vision, he could sense the mana around the area; it was a pure mana unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.
"I need to find something to feed on and regain energy. I can feel a faint cold breeze coming from something ahead," he tried to get up and gently sat Nagasawa's body against the wall. He attempted to assess her condition, but no matter how hard he tried, his mana was too weak to use "Analyze" on Nagasawa.
"I can't let her die. I have Durandal, so I can try to capture something. If I recover, I can get her out of here," Dante thought as he struggled to rise.
His body was sore all over, his movements severely limited. Dante was exhausted in every sense, but he ignored his pains and headed towards the breeze. The place where they had stopped was basically a fork in a cave.
"It wasn't just ten floors after all," Dante thought as he walked. His eyes slightly improved, and his passive regeneration began to take effect, but the internal damage was massive, and it would take days, if not weeks, to fully heal if he didn't find something to eat or replenish his mana.
"The screams of the golems... are gone," he realized that there was nothing but the dripping of water in the cave he walked through.
He followed the breeze until he came across a sort of entrance; the feeling around changed, and he sensed a different mana radiating ahead. It was something evil, but he wasn't sure if he was correct; his senses were in turmoil.
It was an isolated area. Despite the lack of beasts or golems, there was still a very malevolent mana all around. He walked for almost an hour through the underground caverns, always remembering to mark with an arrow on the ground where he could return. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, allowing him to see in the dark, although not with total clarity, it was better than wandering blindly.
He walked until he found something curious: the remains of adventurers, twelve bodies completely decomposed, leaving only pure bone and their garments, black cloaks just like those he saw above.
"By the state, it seems they've been here for over a month. These dry remains don't deceive," he said as he looked at where the bodies lay. The ground was tinged with a greenish-black hue, and there were larvae and insects around, indicating that it was relatively recent.
Dante approached and saw a rusted ring on the hand of one of the skeletons. He gave a slight smile; it was clearly a spatial ring, despite its condition, it could be useful.
"Please, let there be water and food, and maybe some medicine!" he became slightly excited and quickly stole the ring from the skeleton.
"Sorry, pure bone, we're not in a moment to honor the dead," Dante said as he broke the skeleton's finger and took the ring.
Fortunately, he had enough mana to open the storage of the ring, and so he did, retrieving a small pouch from the ring. In the pouch, there were only three things: a mild recovery pill, a water flask, and notes. Although there was no food, having water was a relief.
The notes consisted of basic things and a small map. This map was halfway mapped and was clearly made by themselves as they explored the area.
"The date is recent, a few days before the Academy's debut..." Dante saw that the dates were very close, and when he saw the notes, it was clear what was happening.
"Day 23. As requested, we blocked the advances of the explorers and camouflaged all floors below the tenth. Unfortunately, we were caught by an unknown magic that blocked our teleportation. The Curse Master sealed the place completely, and nothing can leave here after entering."
"Day 24. Our water reserves are running out, and our food will run out tonight. We found some three-star beasts, but we couldn't deal with them."
"Day 31. We managed to survive by eating small beasts like rabbits and fish from the small pond we found. Unfortunately, one of ours was poisoned by the meat and died during the expedition. We are heading to the eleventh floor, but we were blocked."
"Day 34. We are fleeing from a pack of Lycans, nocturnal wolves adapted to caves. Almost everyone is injured. My ring is the only thing left. The food has run out again, and we found out we're on the twentieth floor. Just like before, we managed to find more small ponds with marine life.
Magic here is almost useless; the walls are made of some material that blocks magic. We're running out of time."
"They died being hunted by beasts, but so far I haven't seen any beasts... This place is suspicious," Dante couldn't understand where he was. According to the explorers, this Dungeon was a huge living cave, but at the same time, it didn't make sense for it to be based on floors; something didn't add up.
"I need to check on Nagasawa and use the pill on her," Dante decided and left the corpses behind, taking their cloaks as he headed back to where Nagasawa was hiding and resting. He wasn't foolish; he left Nagasawa's body hidden behind some rocks and covered it with his torn coat to disguise the smell of blood.
"I need you to wake up, Naga," he said as he hurried back.