Standing around for a bit after hearing about the sea of mist on the seventh floor, the leader and those in the known took the opportunity to inform the rest about the danger they might encounter along the way before they officially began their journey towards the sea of mist in question. Knowing that it was best for everyone to be informed about what they might encounter ahead of time, as from here on, the monsters they might run into could truly pose a threat to powerful SS Rank Adventurers like themselves.
The mist bound behemoth was just one of the more well known threats within the sea of mist, as outside of this powerful SS Rank Monster, there was also several deadly S Rank Monster lurking within the mist that could kill even powerful adventurers like themselves if they managed to catch them off guard within the thick mist where normal detection abilities were rendered useless.
Only after a good few minutes had gone by and everyone was informed about the dangers they might run into and what to do in case, they ran into said danger, did the group officially set off towards the sea of mist. Travelling through the grey colored landscape of the seventh floor while dealing with any monster they ran into along the way with relative ease. Arriving at the Sea of Mist after a little over an hour of travel.
"This is... Unusual..." But contrary to what the leader of the group had originally been expecting to encounter during this journey to the sea of mist, they had encountered little to no powerful monsters along the way outside a few S Rank Monsters.
Normally, this might have been fine, but this was the second lowest floor of the swirling sands dungeon, a place that was well known to be filled with countless SS Rank Monsters. Under normal circumstances, there was no way they would have been able to traverse a floor like that without encountering any such monsters along the way.
Leaving him and the rest of the adventurers to draw one simple conclusion...
"It looks like all the SS Rank Monsters and powerful monsters on this floor have already been drawn downwards to the final floor." A conclusion that was answered by one of the mages from the group.
Great as this might seem on the surface when it came to it being far easier for them to travel through the seventh floor, everyone also understood that this meant the state of the dungeon core was already far worse than they had originally expected and they had to get going immediately before the dungeon core was forcibly seized. After all, someone daring enough to engage in this kind of dungeon conquest undoubtedly had the ability to win.
Problem was, though they were aware someone was attempting to seize the dungeon core of the swirling sands dungeon, they didn’t yet have any clue who or what power might be behind this dungeon conquest attempt. The only guess they had so far was the Holy Flower Sect, as this dungeon was within the sphere of influence that the Holy Flower Sect operated within.
"I really hope the one attempting to conquer the dungeon is some lone adventurer group instead of the Holy Flower Sect..."
"And... What is the chance of something like that happening? The last time someone like that appeared was when someone obtained a class quest for ascending beyond the SS Rank that required them to destroy a few dungeon cores, but in case something like that happened we should have been made aware ahead of time."
"Not really, it isn’t only people from our guild with people attempting to ascend beyond the SS Rank, some of those older empires have their fair share of old fossils at the top of the SS Rank as well."
"Everyone, quiet, we are almost at the passage leading down to the final floor." As the group discussed among themselves while making their way through the quiet sea of mist that had not a single monster hidden within it, the leader called out for everyone to quiet down. Announcing they were close to the passage that none of them could see due to the thick grey mist that engulfed them.
The only reason why they trusted the accuracy of the leader’s words being the simple fact that he caried a magic artifact that had been anchored to the passage in question. Allowing them to move through the mist without worrying about losing their way in the process. Not much different from the magical artifacts used on the third floor of the dungeon to navigate the permanent sandstorms of that floor.
"Hm? Everyone... Look on the ground, it looks like some battle took place here not long ago." And as the group quieted down and focused more on their surroundings, it didn’t take long before one of the adventurers noticed the very clear marks on the ground that had been left by the brutal battle Scaly and Verdell had fought against the two members of the Eternal Life Sanctum.
"Sylvia, can you hold back the mist?"
"Yeah, shouldn’t be that difficult using wind magic, though it will be a bit draining on my mana, so I will have to ask you for a mana potion in return to ensure I won’t end up facing whatever is waiting for us below in a weakened state."
"No problem, the guild gave us plenty to ensure our success this time around."
"Hehe~ Great~! Then excuse me for a bit-"
WHOOSH-!
Following the short conversation between the leader and Sylvia, the female mage within the group of adventurers, Sylvia waved her hands in a grand motion as a powerful wind suddenly manifested and swept outwards centered on her. Continuing for several thousand meters where the mist was rapidly pushed backwards before coming to a stop. Forming a dome entirely without any mist inside of it. Allowing everyone to see the battle scars that had been left in far more detail.
"Look! Someone is dead over there!"
But more importantly than that, they spotted the two dead bodies of the SS Rank Members of the Eternal Life Sanctum that neither Scaly nor Verdell had bothered doing anything about before they had descended the passage to the final floor of the dungeon. Neither of them thinking that leaving them behind was much of an issue.
Scaly, not caring much as the dead body wasn’t considered edible in her eyes, while Verdell believed even if the adventurers descending the dungeon behind them to stop the Eternal Life Sanctum from seizing the dungeon core found the dead bodies, it wouldn’t change much beyond making them aware of who they were dealing with. Giving the two of them a better opportunity to potentially fish in troubled waters or even use those adventurers to get themselves out safely.
"This... These people are from the Eternal Life Sanctum!?" Of course, the adventurers had no idea about any of this, as they just rushed over to inspect the dead bodies. Not taking long to realize that the two belonged to the Eternal Life Sanctum, as the other party hadn’t exactly done much to hide their identity and were wearing what could be considered official clothes of the Eternal Life Sanctum with the emblem and symbols all over their armor and clothes alike.
"Eternal Life Sanctum... This is going to be far more troublesome than I originally anticipated..."
"You don’t say! These damn rotting corpses are amongst the most difficult to deal with, even those fanatics from the Holy Flower Sect are better to deal with, as at least you are certain they are dead when you kill them.
These people? You stab them in the heart and leave them only for them to suddenly rise from the dead a second later and stab you in the back!"
"No matter... We must continue. Hopefully, we can rely on the SS Rank Monsters and other powerful monsters defending the dungeon core to deal with the hordes of skeletons and other abominations and focus on finding and dealing with the necromancer in charge."
"Easy to say... Those damnable necromancers are the best when it comes to hiding away in these kinds of situations..."
As the realization of who they were dealing with set in, the group of adventurers who had originally been filled with confidence when it came to completing this task were left in a state of worry. For understandable reasons, as the Eternal Life Sanctum truly was the most difficult opponent to deal with.
"Haaa... Even if its difficult, we took on this task, so we must carry it out, lest we want to deal with a failed task of this nature..." However, as everyone was starting to panic over the realization of who they had to fight, the leader stepped in. Silencing every one of them, as they understood what he meant. Failing a task like this was truly not something any of them wanted as the punishment for doing so was far from light given how dungeons like the swirling sands dungeon were of immense value to the guild and losing it would mean a permanent loss of certain special resources.
And so, though some still felt a bit hesitant, the group ultimately proceeded towards the passage leading to the final floor. Prepared to face off against the necromancer of the Eternal Life Sanctum waiting for them down below.