Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The skill [mana disruption] could only cover so much range and based on the user, the range could become even smaller. If you can just get out of its range, you can easily avoid the skill.

On other hand, if the mage who is being targeted with [Mana Disruption] skill is too powerful and has achieved a profound understanding of the mystical energy, they would easily be able to shake off the effect of the skill.

Whereas, the [Essence Mana Disruption] was a Rare skill of legendary tier that not just disrupts the mana, but interferes with the very mystical particles that make up the mana itself. It is a skill much more powerful and annoying to avoid than the former.

Bea looked at Karina after activating that skill of hers and was inwardly shocked a little. For a mage it was a taboo for their magic to be disrupted midway since doing so would not only disperse their magic but they themselves would receive a fierce backlash tantamount to suffering a severe blow.

Any ordinary mage would get knocked unconscious if not severely injured and unable to battle after that. However, the mage in front of her other than coughing blood that one time, seemed to be doing fine and in perfect control of the mana inside her already.

This goes to show the level of the guild leader of one of the top five guilds and the greatest mage of the kingdom, Karina Lowell a level 660 [Mystic Witch] has reached.

"[Essence Mana Disruption] huh, no wonder the [Anti-Disruption] enchanted on my staff was unable to stop it. But how many times can you use it I wonder" Karina took out a couple of skill crystals from her space ring and inserted an enormous amount of mana inside them.

The skill crystals then started floating and under her [Mana Flow] control spread around her surrounding.

"Now then which one will you stop?" on top of using skill crystals, Karina herself started casting. An excellent decision since the skill [Essence Mana Disruption] only has a short range, Bea would only be able to stop one magic at a time.

That is to say, the skill crystals that are being controlled remotely and from a distance, provided a good distraction.

"Sigh… Alright, then I'll become a little more serious too" Bea sighed and activated her augmenting skill.

[Herculean Agility], [Ultra Enhanced Strength], [Five Senses Ultra Enhancement], [Ultra Body Enhancement]...

Immediately, the entire aura around her changed and she appeared just like the valiant warrior her moniker suggested.

Karina hurriedly raised her guard feeling the changes occurring in her opponent and started casting. The fate of the members of her mage guild, her disciple whose life was hanging by a thread and the entire expedition force was on the line, no matter what she cannot lose.

With determination flashing in her eyes, Karina cast multiple magic at once and went all out.

Half an hour later, Emma who had finished taking care of all the veteran adventurers brought along by Karina, looked at the sky where a powerful clash, was occurring.

The entire ceiling of the 21st floor was covered in chaotic layers of magic, with fire, lightning, wind, ice… all kinds of elements going berserk. The power packed behind each of these magic was extremely destructive and has even started interfering with the very laws of the dungeon itself.

The space had tiny fissures forming, the land was wrecked, and the ceiling was blasted into smithereens. It was like all kinds of natural disasters were occurring all at the same time, the dungeon tried to recover but new damages formed even before the previous one could close.

From this, one could tell the level of fight that was going on up there.

"Haa… Haa… How is it possible? Beings like you shouldn't be here…" Karina said with much difficulty as a dagger punctured a hole through her chest.

"Hmph, consider yourself unlucky for trying to go against master. In any case, you should be proud, you managed to land a scratch on me. Perhaps if there were a couple more people on your level I would have been hard pressed for a victory" Bea muttered pulling her dagger back.

"Haha…" Completely defeated, Karina gave a hollow laugh, her eyes became moist and two teardrops trickled down her face.

As her life slowly seeped away from her, many memories surfaced in her mind. One had to wonder what a woman of her calibre, a well known mage and a respected guild master was thinking during her last moments.

Bea looked at the silent body of her opponent before turning around and walking towards her waiting sister.

"Hiee~ E-Elder Sister c-can I eat their bodies?" Emma asked nervously. Her race predated on fresh corpses hence it was irresistible for her when these many fresh bodies were lying in front of her.

Bea who knew her sister well, thought for a second before nodding her head. Since she had worked so hard, this much of a treat was fine.

"You can eat a few. Ah, but leave that woman's body alone".

Emma nodded her head. Was this Bea's way of showing respect to her opponent or just simple whim? There was no way of telling.

"Now then, I wonder how the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse was doing" Bea muttered under her breath.

----

30th floor, the territory of the Chimaera Bears. The secondary unit comprising of the secondary teams of all the top twenty guilds, was stationed here.

They were the backup unit that contained the most number of adventurers, and their main job was to assist the primary unit. Well, all these were just nice words to cover the fact that they were in the secondary unit because they couldn't make it to their respective primary teams.

Strength wise, they were weaker than the adventurers on the primary team but their numbers were in the highest. Out of the thirty thousand strong expedition force, the primary unit comprised of only 13 per cent of the total numbers, while 25 per cent were in the tertiary team and the remaining were in the secondary unit.

That is to say, around 62 per cent of the total number of adventurers were in the secondary unit. That being said, not all of them could fight, many of the adventurers had other side professions such as Craft Smiths, Foragers, Dismantler, Alchemist, Porters and such.

When diving inside a dungeon, especially one that is an intermediate tier or above, it is a common knowledge that the exploration might take up weeks of time or even a month inside. That is why, guilds often bring a group of weapon smiths, alchemists and people with such professions with them so that they do not have to surface every time their weapons needed repairing or they ran out of potions and elixirs.

The same could be said for the Foragers and Dismantlers who handled harvesting plants, herbs and dismembering monsters for the primary teams.

A dungeon, especially those that are intermediate and high tiers are a place filled with mystical energy so it was bound to have all kinds of precious herbs and items grow inside it.

It would be too much of a waste if the guild simply walk past them, that is why, it was necessary to also have people with knowledge about such things.

Essentially, the secondary unit was a group of all such people and right now, they were faced with the biggest peril since the start of the dungeon exploration.

The floor that just until a few hours ago, was filled with dense mystical energy was now engulfed by a dark ominous aura.

Adventurers were fighting against one another, beast horde swarming them and to make matters even worse, the guild leaders of the Phantom Light guild and the Baskerville guild who were placed under a prison by the grey haired man broke out of their restraints and started murdering everyone.

The scene on the 30th floor was a complete chaos with adventurers running everywhere trying to save their own lives. And all of this started with just a simple activation of a skill, [Demonic Purge].

A Rare Ancient skill possessed by the Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse who was silently watching the massacre being unfold with its six nightmarish eyes.

The skill was the evolved tier of the [Demonic Grasp] skill that it had previously. It impacted the minds of the adventurers, breaking their mental fortitude and stimulating all their negative emotions.

Everybody has some kind of negative emotion suppressed deep within their heart. This skill resurfaced those emotions, corrupting the target and making them go insane.

That being said, the annihilation of the secondary unit wouldn't have gone so well if not because of the two guild leaders. With Karina and most of the veterans gone, there was no one left to keep them in check.

The Bloodthorn Demonic warhorse's mission was to use its mental encroachment skill on the guild leaders who were already overwhelmed by the negative emotions and make them slaughter the secondary unit.

This was also the reason why Simon had stopped his subordinates from doing anything when the primary unit apprehended the guild leaders and transferred them to the secondary unit. Because he knew he could take advantage of their negative emotions later on down the line that he did not do anything.

"To think that everything would go the way he predicted, my lord indeed does everything thoroughly" The Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse commented proudly.

With no one to stop the two guild leaders, the casualties the secondary unit incurred started skyrocketing and with time, more and more adventurers started falling prey to the mind encroachment skill.

And after a while, there was no one left alive on the 30th floor.