Chapter 461 - 461 - The Hidden Monsters That Rival Monster Rexes

As an adventurer, Persephone had far more seniority than Leon. Back when Leon had just started out and was still a Lv.1 small fry, she had already been a veteran Lv.3 adventurer. Even after she pulled back from the front lines to follow Goddess Demeter and study the art of farming, that didn't mean her experience and perspective faded along with it.

The opposite, in fact. With that seniority behind her, in the adventurer circle, even if she spent every day holed up in the fields, as captain of the Demeter Familia, one of the pillars that kept Orario running, she didn't have to go digging for certain things. Plenty of information that low-level adventurers could never touch simply arrived on her desk.

Information about the hidden Monster Rexes in each region of the Dungeon was naturally part of that.

"Stronger than the Monster Rex Udaeus? How is that possible?"

Behind her mask, Aura's mouth opened slightly, her wide eyes full of disbelief, her voice climbing. "That's a Monster Rex!"

Persephone pulled her cloak tight, narrowed her eyes, and began explaining to the Lv.1 and Lv.2 "newcomers" the sort of information most adventurers in the Guild had no way of learning.

"As everyone knows, the Monster Rexes go Lv.4, Lv.5, Lv.6, Lv.7, and so on. But according to Goddess Demeter, that isn't fixed. Under certain conditions, their levels change. For instance, a Lv.4 might rise to Lv.5, a Lv.5 might become a Lv.6."

"Apart from the Two-Headed Dragon Amphisbaena, whose condition isn't especially demanding (in water, its subjugation difficulty is equivalent to Lv.6), the trigger conditions for the rest of the Monster Rexes are extremely strict. At least in recent years I've never heard of a subjugation battle that met one."

"The Freya Familia may know something about it, but the Loki Familia certainly doesn't. These are secrets going back centuries, after all. You know how it is. The Loki Familia may be one of the Twin Pillars of the City, but it only rose in the last few decades. The Dungeon has existed for who knows how long, and there's no telling how many secrets it holds."

A chill ran across their scalps.

"So don't let your fixed assumptions blind you."

Having warned them, Persephone paused, then went on. "Think about it. The Two-Headed Dragon's subjugation difficulty rises in the right environment. So for a monster of a similar type and mechanism to Amphisbaena, the Mirage Sand Dragon, in sandstorm and desert terrain, would its challenge difficulty change too?"

The lesson clicked in their heads like a lightning bolt.

"Don't tell me... Lv.6, no! Peak Lv.6, maybe even close to Lv.7?"

Looking at Laurier's eyes gone perfectly round, Persephone nodded.

Leon narrowed his eyes, gazing at the huge shadow flickering in and out of sight deep in the sandstorm, and grinned. "I was wondering. Ever since we entered Sand Land I couldn't figure out why the trip was going so smoothly. It's not like our usual terrible luck at all. Heh. Turns out this was waiting here for us."

Before he finished, he swung his staff along with the motion, and the head landed square on the skull of a Sandstorm Venom Scorpion that had just come up out of the sand.

The crack of it was brutal, and the scorpion's eyes went blank.

Its mind shifted. It saw itself as it had been when it was born, when it was still just an ordinary Lv.3 monster of Sand Land, crawling happily under the yellow sand.

Before long, though, it noticed that the others of its kind around it acted purely on instinct, without a trace of intelligence. In that moment it felt loneliness. Until one day, it accidentally ate a kinsman's "heart," a Magic Stone, and power surged through every limb and bone, and even its mind grew a little sharper.

From that day on, it understood.

These "kin" who only followed instinct were not its own kind. They were food.

Grow stronger. Crave that power.

It turned its gaze toward its neighbors in the desert.

Become one with me.

And today, it had caught a sweet scent, superb prey carrying the "flavor of the sky."

I want it.

So it made its move.

The scorpion's eyes cleared, but it felt its strength and awareness draining away fast.

It had already died the instant it surfaced.

Killed Lv.4 Strengthened Species, Excelia +49

"?"

Leon frowned slightly. The feel of that hit had been off. He glanced at the scrolling message bar, and it clicked.

"Tch, a Strengthened Species again."

Not that he cared. Ever since they entered Sand Land these Strengthened Species had popped up every so often, every last one of them a Lv.4 heavyweight, and everyone had long since gotten used to it.

No, numb to it.

Even facing something that had broken through the Blizzard to attack, never mind seasoned hands like Jeanne and Rose, even Iri and Margaret didn't change expression.

Seeing Leon dispatch the monster offhand, Laurier snarked from the side, "If it could charge in that close under your magic suppression, it'd be strange if it weren't a Strengthened Species."

At this depth of the Dungeon, the strength of any random wave of monsters matched a Monster Party in the Upper or Middle Floors.

Otherwise, how would it deserve the name of the 36th floor?

Without that strength, how could it serve as the final gate of the Lower Floors?

In the yellow sand, the huge shadow flickering in and out of view grew clearer as the party advanced. Standing on a small dune, they could feel the pressure coming off that Lv.6 limit.

Jeanne and Rose looked grim, drew a deep breath, and turned around. "Leon, what now? Do we go around it and head straight down to the 37th floor, or...?"

He looked around, taking in the expressions of the ladies, then fixed his gaze on that blurred shadow a size larger than Amphisbaena, grinned insolently, a sharp light in his eyes. "We kill it, obviously! A rarity like this, all of Orario might not see one in a whole year. It had better drop me a Drop Treasure Chest, or there's no excuse for it. Right, everyone?"

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