Chapter 1519: Hidden Conditions

The next floor revealed the exact same layout once again, except the buildings were now taller though they were still mostly ruins with overgrown plants clinging on the sides of the buildings and most of them missing a roof.

Looks like I was right in assuming that each floor was basically rewinding time for this ruined city and maybe by the end of the Dungeon, we would see a fully restored city.

Incidentally, I asked the girls if they knew what city this was but apparently it’s not based on a real city and just a fictional one that the Dungeon made up.

The monsters that occupied the streets were still zombies though they seemed to move in bigger groups as compared to the floor above us. Additionally, there were also some larger sized zombies walking amongst them as well, which I assumed were like mini bosses that roam around the ruined city.

There were still quite a number of people on this floor, though I noted there was no longer a queue waiting outside the building that contained the stairs leading down towards the next floor.

Either the floor after this was not profitable enough for them to go further... Or the requirements to get past the floor boss group was not worth the effort.

It didn’t really matter to us since our goal was to reach the bottom floor and not to farm the monsters here.

There were a few of those zombies that were in our way when we tried to get to the building to get to the next floor but my girls made short work of them before they could even be a threat to us.

Even the mini bosses were easily crushed by my girls before they could even do anything so... They were definitely not a threat.

We made our way towards the building that I was getting accustomed to at this point, the door that was meant to contain the entrance of the building reduced to scraps that laid on the floor and welcomed newcomers with its gaping maw.

Like what I had seen from afar, there was no party waiting outside the building so no one complained as we went all the way to the front and stepped through the building’s entrance.

The same party was there surrounding the stairs that led to the next floor, but I noted that they seemed to look older... Like they had aged a few years from the last time we saw them.

That was a rather interesting change considering the city should be aging backwards into the past where it’s returning to its former glory instead.

I guess this was just a quirk of the Dungeon and these guys being older was basically a way of showing that they were veterans or something, since older Dungeoneers were obviously more experienced and more likely to be stronger than younger ones.

We stepped inside the hall where the floor Boss group was surrounding the stairs and, unlike the ones from the previous floors above where they were behaving like a bunch of brats that made fun of the Dungeoneers that came in, this group looked disciplined and solemn.

They were standing around the stairs and turned to face us the moment we entered, their arms crossed in front of their chest.

"You who seek to enter the lower floors come forward," The leader spoke out, his voice sounding like it came from all around the room.

Wow~ This sounds so cool~ Like an actual boss fight instead of the previous floors where it really just felt like there were a bunch of guys shaking people down.

All of us stepped into the hall.

The leader swept his gaze across all of us with a detached look, "If you wish to proceed further, state the name of the one that used to rule this place and you shall pass. Fail and face our wrath."

... Huh...

That was certainly unexpected... They didn’t ask for bribes or anything but to state a name?

I’m assuming you could probably find out the answer if you explore this floor or something but... Yeah, we’re not here to do that.

That’s why...

"Your mom," I answered him.

"That is inco--"

I didn’t let him finish as I shot a [Spark Strike] at him, nailing the guy in the chest.

That was the signal for everyone else to charge as well, all of them picking a target amongst the group and cutting and striking them down.

Sure... They could act all cool and mysterious all they want... But we’re still going to steamroll them. This is still a D ranked Dungeon after all...

It didn’t even take a few seconds for them to be completely torn apart, leaving us free to advance once again.

The next floor showed us a city that actually looked intact.

Most of the buildings were standing and mostly restored and it looked more like a city that had been abandoned for a few years instead of the site of a ruins that has been left to rot for decades.

But walking through the streets were scores of undead, their numbers in the thousands and each of them clustered together to form groups that were at least a dozen or more in number.

The larger mini boss zombies were also not being accompanied by some of the smaller zombies and it looked like they were more agile than the previous floor’s zombies as they moved with almost humanlike grace, rather than the jerky and slow movements that were dominant in the previous floors.

There were definitely fewer Dungeoneers here so we had to fight our way to the same building that held the stairs, which still wasn’t really hard anyway.

That’s already considering the fact that the zombies would actually come running at us instead of a slow shamble like before. The only thing was that we could quite literally kill them off at a distance without letting them close to us so it didn’t even matter that they were able to run.

Sweeping through the hordes of zombies, we got to the same building that held the stairs and this time the door was actually in place and it swung inwards automatically as we approached.

Once again, it looked like everyone in the room got older by quite a bit.

Most of them now sported greying hairs and equally grey beards, their cheeks and eyes sunken in with age as they watched us enter with unblinking eyes.

"You who have entered the City of Lost Souls... For you to reach the final floor, answer our riddles thr--"

I went ahead to just slice him into half with my Light Sword without bothering to listen to what he had to say.

Sorry, a villain like myself isn’t going to play by the rules. Just die and get out of our way.

My girls also embodied that sentiment of mine as they finished off the rest of the floor boss group, wiping them out like they were no more difficult than the last few floors.

Judging by that guy’s words from earlier, I’m assuming the next floor was going to be the last, which means we were going to complete this Dungeon faster than I thought.

As we went down the stairs once again, we found ourselves looking at a fully restored city that looked nothing like how it was before.

The entire city looked like it had completely been restored, its buildings now standing tall and proud with no signs of overgrowth on them.

Not only that, there were even street lights illuminating the streets and the windows of the buildings were all lit up from the light inside them like they were occupied.

But despite the fact that the city looked completely well maintained and full of life... The entire place was just crawling with undead.

It was like the entire city was made specifically for undead to inhabit as zombies and even skeletons were occupying every single visible street.

And this was also the first floor that I did not see a whole lot of Dungeoneers at. In fact, I don’t see anyone else on this floor.

I guess even the people here to farm the monsters for materials also knew this place wasn’t really well suited for materials gathering.

And since we didn’t need to worry about being seen by others here when there’s no one here to see it...

I called out my Shadow Guards and let them cut a way through the massive horde of monsters, grinding through them like they weren’t even there and leaving a trail of dead corpses in their wake.

We reached the building once again which I only just realised looked like the picture of a noble’s mansion instead of just a regular dwelling like the others around it.

When we stepped inside however, a voice came from all around us.

"Challenger detected. Fulfilled conditions... Killed every floor boss instead of bribing to get through them... Current Dungeon Boss will now be replaced... New hidden Dungeon Boss unlocked."

...

What the heck? There’s such a mechanic in Dungeons too?