Lohan’s mental laughter ceased abruptly when [Spatial Echo-Location] sent a frantic mapping to his core.
Through the hole in the ceiling leading to the second floor, he sensed a large number of monsters, at least more than 12 beetles like the ones they had fought, but instead of descending uncontrollably, these beetles remained on the second floor, as if they were forming a battle formation.
"Lisa, stop trying to shake me..." Lohan transmitted seriously, cutting off the playful mood. "A group is forming above us, I’m sensing... around fifteen thermal signatures now, all of which have become strangely static after a few seconds."
Lisa stopped rolling and looked up, but her eyes, though powerful, could not pierce the dense darkness of the upper floor like Halon’s tracking skills could.
"Fifteen? That’s more than double the last group..." Lisa replied, her mental voice quickly regaining its battle-hardened coldness. "Why didn’t they come down? With that numerical advantage, even just following their basic instincts would pose a major threat to us."
"Exactly..." Lohan vibrated his membrane, now in a flatter form on her back. "They’re not acting on instinct like before... they’re keeping a safe distance of five meters from the edge of the hole, as if it were an organized ambush! Someone, or something, is holding their leash."
They decided to wait and see if the insects would grow impatient.
Ten minutes turned into thirty, then forty. The buzzing from above was constant, but no beetle dared to descend.
The silence on the first floor became oppressive, broken only by the sound of digestion inside Lohan.
"I don’t think they’re coming out, Lisa. If we want the Core of this Dungeon, we’ll have to go up and deal with the welcoming committee," Lohan stated. "If we had to deal with this many bugs normally, I don’t even know if we could do it, but if we go with my Living Armor idea, I think our chances increase greatly."
Lisa hesitated for a second, remembering the previous sensation, but looking at the still-fresh cut on her flank, she gave in. "All right, Halon. But if you try any funny business, I swear I’ll finish you off."
Lohan did not respond with words. He expanded his biomass, activating [Membrane Reinforcement Lv 22] and [Biological Elasticity Lv 5]
The dark blue gelatin began to flow like living lava over Lisa, covering her chest, flanks, and neck, leaving only her paws, tails, and silver eyes free for combat.
Then, he activated [Obsidian Exoskeleton Lv 3].
Rigid black hexagonal plates sprouted from Lohan’s mass, fitting over Lisa’s body like a complete symbiotic armor.
Lisa felt its weight on her, which made her movements a little awkward compared to how she normally moved, but since the weight was evenly distributed across her body, it didn’t compromise her movement as much as she had imagined.
And considering how much her resistance had increased, the slight decrease in flexibility was only a small price to pay.
"Let’s go," Lohan commanded.
Lisa fired off [Spectral Step], leaping up the walls in a spiral until she broke through the hole in the ceiling.
What awaited them on the second floor was like a nightmare banquet.
Fifteen Glass-Shelled Beetles were positioned in a semicircle, their metallic jaws snapping in unison.
As soon as Lisa landed, the encirclement closed in around her.
The battle was instantly bloody.
Three beetles dove at Lisa’s chest, but instead of tearing through flesh, their scythe-like legs collided with Lohan’s obsidian armor.
CRACK!
Lohan felt the sharp pain, but the [Hemolymphatic Tissue Lv 10] was activated, and as the beetles’ legs touched Lisa, Lohan attacked back, digesting any part that came into contact with the black armor, not only causing damage back to the attacker, but also recovering energy for him.
While Lisa delivered kicks of [Spiritual Fire] that incinerated the attackers’ heads, Lohan used [Selective Viscosity] to "bite" the beetles that touched her, injecting [Poison Production Lv 7] directly into their joints.
The dance between Lisa’s flames and the beetles’ tough shells became frantic as the fifteen beetles closed in around the pair, turning the second floor of the tree into a bloody arena of attrition.
Lisa moved desperately, using [Spectral Step] while leaving trails of light that the beetles tried to intercept with strangely coordinated dives.
Lohan, acting as Living Armor, felt every impact that should have struck the fox’s body, and the sound that came from those impacts was no longer pure metal, but shrapnel flying as the level 10 jaws pushed his resistance to the limit.
The difficulty of dealing with so many enemies above his level simultaneously was taking its toll.
As Lisa spun to incinerate two frontal attackers, a larger beetle leaped out of a side tunnel, striking her flank with a force that overwhelmed Lohan’s [Non-Newtonian Resilience].
The hexagonal plates, unable to absorb so much kinetic pressure at once, shattered with a sharp, painful crack. One of the monster’s serrated legs pierced through Lohan’s membrane, tearing through the deep blue gelatin and reaching Lisa’s flesh beneath him.
Lohan felt that the biomass inside him was falling at an alarming rate, to the point that the stockpile he had accumulated over the past few days had already fallen to a critical 38%!
Lohan felt the sharp pain run through his core with that attack, but anger suppressed the shock.
The [Hemolymphatic Tissue Lv 10] skyrocketed his digestion rate to the max as soon as the enemies’ green ichor and his own vital fluid began to mix.
"Lisa, hang in there, I need fuel!" Lohan transmitted through the mental link, his voice vibrating with urgency.
In a risky move, Lohan used [Partial Division Lv 7] to expel three clones directly onto the corpses of the first beetles Lisa had slain.
While Lohan’s main body writhed to close the gap in the armor and protect her wound with what remained of the biomass stockpile, the clones acted as biomass "suction pumps," ignoring any caution to dissolve the carapaces in seconds, taking advantage of the fact that the [Hemolymphatic Tissue] was still active.
Renewed by the large influx of energy, Lohan gradually increased the thickness of the armor and fired a net of [Magic Weaving Lv 3] from Lisa’s back, creating anchor points that glowed neon blue.
Lisa, understanding his tactic without him having to explain anything, used the threads as pivots to change direction instantly, delivering [Spirit Fire] kicks that turned the beetles’ insides to ash before they even touched the ground.
Lohan, now with a steady influx of biomass, did not limit himself to defense alone. He projected small spikes of [Ice Spike] from all directions of his armor, trying to control his Mana expenditure as much as possible, impaling the beetles that tried to flank the fox, while [Monocular Telescopic Vision Lv 9] ensured that each shot hit the vulnerable joints of the monsters’ wings.
The battle of attrition swung in their favor when the last group of beetles, seeing his power regenerate through the death of their own companions, tried to retreat. But they wouldn’t let anyone escape... With a final burst of power, Lohan and Lisa cleared the floor in a brutal synchrony of destruction.
By the time they dealt with the last beetle, both of them were mortally exhausted.
The armor that had completely covered Lisa’s body at the beginning of the battle was now much thinner and had several painful holes in Lohan.
Lisa, who had beautiful, silky white fur before this invasion, now had her fur completely messed up and stained with a mixture of her own blood, the beetles’ blood, and the dirt that had flown around.
Neither of them looked like someone who had emerged victorious from a glorious battle, but reading the notification that appeared next made them both very excited.
[Experience: +2,683] [Experience: 5,003 / 12,800]
In just a few hours of battle, the amount of experience they received was almost equivalent to what was needed to go from level 7 to level 8!
Considering that they had only been raiding this dungeon for two hours, if they could find other dungeons like this to raid today, even leveling up from level 8 to level 10 would not be impossible!
But this speed could not be maintained for long, so they would have to make the most of it while they could.
"Huff... that was... more intense than I imagined... can you sense anyone else?" Lisa asked worriedly.
Even with Lohan protecting her as much as possible, she still sustained some injuries, and unlike Lohan, who could digest biomass to heal himself in a short time, even though she was a Legendary Fox, her body was still a physical organism that needed nutrients and time to recover, so the wounds would remain with her for some time.
If they had to deal with a few dozen more beetles like these, Lisa wasn’t even sure she would survive until the battle against the Boss.
Lohan heard her question and was also concerned.
While using his main body and three clones to digest the beetles as quickly as possible, he began scanning the tree as thoroughly as he could, hoping not to find anything else.
This dungeon invasion was much more difficult than he had imagined...
[NunuNote: Read the Author’s Thoughts Down Here ↓↓↓]