Hero of Darkness

Legolas informed Edmund, their ally in this expedition that they had killed the boss and not even its body was left. 

But in reality… Armin had gathered all the chunks of flesh, extracted the blood and bones under Kahn's orders. To remove the evidence of the fight and how they killed the boss. 

Legolas also told Edmund that the boss had a mental attack skill that targeted him, the weakest of the group, and made him faint. Thus, he was knocked out during the whole battle. 

As for how they killed it? 

He iterated a fake battle strategy with some truth to it such as surrounding and overwhelming the boss with numbers. 

Because in the end, killing a mythical rank boss was a great feat so they didn't want the alchemist to ask unnecessary questions that could unravel their secrets.

The more oblivious Edmund was about their true battle prowess, the better. 

All in all, they were now free to leave this floor and progress further. 

Now, only 10 floors were left and they'd be able to leave this hellish dungeon after completing their main objective of gathering the resources on the 81st floor. 

All of them took deep breaths and finally entered the exit door, hoping for smooth sailing from here on. 

----------------

Two Days Later. 

Huff! 

Huff! 

Over 500 people passed through the entrance door and appeared on the 71st floor, all of them being battle-worn and vigilant towards each other. 

In this group, not a single person was below Grandmaster Rank and they had close to a hundred Semi-Saints and 25 Saints. 

Two of these powerful beings were 5th stage saints, 3 were 4th stage saints while the rest were 3rd and below. 

However, none of them had any joyful expression but grimness in their eyes. 

Lagertha Skjoldottir, the guildmaster of the 12 Valkyries arrived with her group of saints. By now, the number of combatants still progressing through the Immortal Dungeon had greatly diminished. 

"Dammit!! Only if we had prepared more." she spoke with a constricted expression. 

At least half of her guild members had died during their journey so far. Although they had come with ample preparations, a supreme dungeon was not a place where everything went according to their plan. 

Sometimes, unprecedented and unpredictable factors arose and caused numerous casualties. 

Although saints were powerful combatants, not all of them were proficient when it came to protecting thousands of people at once. 

So recently, they had no choice but to let most of their guild members return to the outside world as only the strongest of their forces kept traversing these dangerous floors by themselves. 

This was the same case for the majority of the forces whether they were mercenaries, noble house envoys or adventurer guilds. So only the strong-willed and powerful individuals gathered and traveled together at this point. 

The previous alliance no longer existed. It was everybody for themselves and half the group held animosity towards the other half for various reasons. 

Yet, they could always settle the score outside so no one had openly attacked the other party. 

"Guildmaster, both mana and world energy is sealed on this floor." spoke the white-haired vice-guildmaster of the 12 Valkyries who was a magician. 

Lagertha then revealed a curious gaze as she looked around. 

"Where's the Hydra?" asked one of the saints from the other groups. 

"Wait… looks like the floor is cleared. The hydra must be respawning now." said an Enchanter class saint. 

"Does it mean someone killed it within a week?" asked a berserker class saint. 

"Don't tell me… the Misthios guild cleared it already? 

They were the ones who had a lead for half a month." said Rose Hightower of the 12 Valkyries. 

One after another, hundreds of these new arrivals revealed amazed expressions. 

Because this floor was the 2nd most feared boss in Immortal Dungeon that was cleared only 5 times in history. 

And this was also one of the main reasons why all of them had decided to stick around and kill it by joining hands despite their grievances with each other. 

Yet, the Misthios guild which had only 10 saints and only 8 combat class individuals among them somehow killed the boss on their own. 

Not a single person here could help but feel a sense of mental oppression, thinking how strong this guild was to achieve such a feat while they had no access to their most powerful skills. 

Even Lagertha, who was 4th stage saint herself couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and wonder… 

"Misthios guild… just who are you people?" 

----------------

At this very moment, a different scenario came into sight on the 81st floor. 

A land colored in red and a massive body of a ginormous monster came into sight. 

Blergh! 

A high elf saint spat a mouthful of blood as he adjusted his breathing and gathered all the strength in his body to stand up. 

He looked around the battlefield and used his senses to detect his allies. 

Huff! 

Huff! 

Ervalen was barely able to stand as he used his staff to support his body while revealing a disheartened expression. 

Myrienne, the Priestess of this group, stood a few hundred meters away, her forehead full of sweat and her breathing inconsistent. 

The 5th stage saint slowly walked and stopped near a body on the ground. 

"Farewell, my friend." he spoke and closed the eyes of a corpse. 

This individual was none other than the Knight saint who was also a 5th stage saint like the former. But now… he had lost his life after this arduous and intense battle. 

The Hero's Party had killed the 81st floor boss. Achieving a feat no one had managed to do in the past thousand years and becoming the first people to clear this floor. 

However… this victory didn't bring any of them joy at the moment. 

During the battle, the blue-skinned elf and the blonde archer elf, both of whom were 3rd stage saints, had lost their lives. 

And they barely managed to achieve their goal after the 5th stage saint knight chose to sacrifice himself for the sake of saving his allies and creating an opportunity to kill the boss. 

Their group originally had 12 members. But the Elder Hydra had killed 6 of them already. 

And now, they lost 3 more of their comrades on this floor. 

Who would've thought that the overbearing Hero's Party that was all prideful and acted almighty in front of Kahn's group would be killed off not by Rudra or Kahn, whom they offended publicly but by the Immortal Dungeon floor bosses instead. 

Now, only Ervalen, Myrienne and the elf swordsman remained. 

This was victory without a great price to pay. 

What did it cost? 

Everything.