Published: January 22, 2026
Up to the 90th floor, there is one floor boss every ten levels, but in the deeper layers, each floor has its own floor boss.
That’s the major difference between the lower layers and the deep layers.
A floor boss is a demonic beast that can only move within a certain range but possesses immense power.
Why floor bosses cannot leave their designated range is unknown, but so far, there has never been any report of one stepping outside that area.
Because of this, all explorers share the common understanding that floor bosses are simply that kind of demonic beast.
Yet, despite being far from the boss area and where the black dragon should never be able to come, it is naturally there.
Why!?
The black dragon lets out a great roar and dives toward us, who are still in the midst of confusion.
“Tch!”
Derrick instinctively steps forward and raises his shield.
“—Philly! Prioritize Derrick and cast every buff you have on all of us!”
“……Ah,………”
Philly seemed stunned, showing no reaction to my words.
“—No buffs! Everyone, dodge on your own!”
Carrying Philly on my back, I called out to everyone and moved away from the spot.
Orun activated magic to support Derrick even before I finished shouting.
If Orun could do that, why can’t an enchanter better than Orun do the same!?
The black dragon lands on the ground with all four legs, the force of the landing hitting me and Philly squarely on our backs, sending us flying.
I somehow rolled to absorb the impact as I hit the ground, but then a ball of fire rushed toward me.
It was the black dragon’s follow-up attack.
I barely dodged, but the residual heat lightly burned me.
I quickly glanced around. Aneli was safe.
Huh? Luna was running to Derrick’s side, using healing magic.
I couldn’t tell how bad his injuries were from here, but at least he was conscious.
“Mr. Oliver! Buy us time to retreat! We don’t stand a chance in the current situation!”
Luna shouted loudly, urging retreat.
With the defender no longer functional, we weren’t in any condition to fight the black dragon head-on.
“Damn, it can’t be helped. —Philly, can you move?”
“Y-yes. I’m sorry.”
It seemed the shock from being blown away earlier had helped her regain some composure.
“Save apologies for later. First, buff all of us! Then regroup with Luna!”
“Yes!”
Philly quickly cast buffs on me.
I gathered the mana in the air around me onto the blade of my sword.
Mana is normally invisible, but when concentrated in one spot, it formed a faint golden flame that wrapped around the blade.
Some humans possess a rare supernatural ability.
—Supernatural abilities are a completely different kind of power from human magic or demonic beast magic.
My supernatural ability is called Mana Convergence.
Mana Convergence simply gathers the mana present around me into a single point.
However, the shockwave produced when that gathered mana disperses instantaneously has destructive power surpassing even top-tier magic, which usually requires time to activate.
“Heavenly Flash!!”
I swung down the sword wrapped in golden flames.
This is my strongest technique, sending the concentrated mana on the blade flying as a slashing attack.
I aimed to destroy the black dragon’s wings to take away its flying ability!
Having no wings would drastically reduce its flight capability, as proven during the last hunt.
The golden slash hit the black dragon’s wings, transforming into a massive shockwave.
With this, even if we retreat, it shouldn't be able to chase us.
“—What!?”
Last time, I managed to blow off the black dragon’s wings with Heavenly Flash.
But this time, not only were its wings intact, it hadn’t even suffered significant damage.
“W-why…”
“Oliver, watch out!”
I thought I heard Aneli’s voice.
“Gah…!”
My mind went blank at the fact that Heavenly Flash hadn’t left a scratch.
Before I knew it, the black dragon's tail, moving at blinding speed, struck me, sending me flying through the air.
“…Cough, cough.”
I hit the ground without much ability to protect myself, but thanks to Philly’s buffs, it wasn’t fatal.