37 Chapter 38: Mistake?

As they entered the eleventh floor, they noticed that something was different. The stairs were longer than usual, and there was a blue light coming from the bottom.

"Am I the only one who thinks something feels off?" Asked Serena.

"I feel it too..." Replied Ariel.

"Yeah, it's the first time we've descended so low when moving floors. Looks like Rose wasn't joking, things may start to get dangerous." John said.

After continuously walking down the stairs, they finally reached the bottom. What they saw was...

"This is..."

"I heard that the biome can change in a dungeon, but I never expected this..."

A giant hall with only one path, besides it, was water and no matter how hard John tried to look, he couldn't see the bottom.

"So a water biome, huh?"

The 11th floor was filled with water all around. There are no signs of monsters instead of a giant door which leads to the next room. It looked beautiful, especially that shadows formed due to the light being reflected from the water.

'It looks beautiful but... What's the weird feeling in my chest? As if I should head back…' John wondered.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go" Serena said as she pulled him towards to giant door.

'It's probably my imagination…' John thought.

"Y-Yeah, let's go," John said as he took the lead.

"Don't you think John's acting a little weird?" Serena asked Ariel as the two walked behind.

"Yeah, since we entered this floor, something's been off, maybe we should turn back?" Ariel Said.

As she said that, John opened the door to the next room, and inside was another hall, with a single path.

They followed the path and entered the next room. And again there was another single path. They repeated this another 3 times and eventually stopped.

"Okay, what's going on? Usually, there would be some sort of maze or choice, but it feels as if we're just walking in circles," Said Serena.

The two girls looked intently at John as if expecting an answer.

"Why are you two looking at me?" John asked.

"You've been acting weird since we came here, so I thought you might have figured something out. That's what you're good at." Said Serena as she walked ahead through the path.

'Nonetheless, not encountering any monsters is this normal? A bottomless pit of water... Wait, I continuously stared at the water. It was clear and clean, not something you'd expect from an old dungeon.' John thought.

It was then that John noticed.

"Don't move." He calmly said.

Both Serena and Ariel slowly stopped after they heard him.

"What's wrong?" Quietly asked Serena.

'Why didn't I notice earlier?' John questioned.

"This path is a bridge, and under it. There are monsters." John said.

"And? It's not like they've attacked us." She replied.

"What I'm trying to say is. There's only one path to the boss room." John said.

"Yeah, we're standing on it." She said.

"No, Serena, I think what John is trying to say is that we're going to have to swim down to reach it," Ariel said.

"So you realised it too... Yeah, if we continued walking we would just be stuck in a loop." John said.

"Really? We're going to have to fight water monsters in the water? Dungeon, why do you hate us!?" Shouted Serena.

"But, she's right, the only John can control the water element, the 2 of us might end up drowning." Said Ariel.

"That's fine, I can create a bubble of air big enough to fit the three of us." John replied.

And he won't have to worry about them running out of oxygen as he can just take some from the water molecules.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Asked Serena with an annoyed expression.

"Either way, I think we should head back, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Don't ignore the question! But you're right, we should head ba-"

John interrupted Serena as he cast 'Velox' and propelled himself to her. He caught her midair and landed with her in his arms near the other side of the bridge.

"That was close." John said as he looked over at the water whip, which missed her.

"Wha-What are you doing..?" Asked Serena.

Her red face calmly stared straight at John. But that was not the reaction he was expecting. "Look over there," John said as he stared at the whip.

The water had taken the shape of a whip and laid motionless on the bridge. Serena looked at it and then looked at John waiting for an explanation..

"That water whip thing moved out of the water and tried to attack you. Before it did, I used Velox to move you out of the way." John said.

"Oh... Thank you..." Said Serena as she looked away.

"Ventus"

John cast Ventus and cut the whip in half, however, despite being separated from the water, the whip didn't change its shape.

"I see... So it's not the water that's alive... It was magic, there's either a mage here who can use magic or..." John spoke.

"Or..?" Serena asked.

"Or, there's a strong monster. Either way, we should start heading back. I used up too much magic today." John said. 

"I agree... Um... Can you put me down?" Asked Serena.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," John said as he put her down.

After he had stopped carrying her, she didn't say anything else.

"Is everything alright?" John asked.

"Everything's fine!" Said Serena as she faced the other direction.

"O-Okay..?"

They walked over to Ariel and noticed that her face was pouting.

"A-Are you okay, Ariel?" John asked.

"Yeah, why?" She replied.

"Y-Your face," John said.

"I don't know, I just suddenly felt a bit annoyed. But I'm glad that Serena's fine, I didn't even notice the spell," Said Ariel as her expression changed from a pouting one to a relieved one.

"We're a party, it's natural. Let's head back, any objections?" John asked.

The two girls shook their heads, and they went back down the path they came from. They went back through the entrance after crossing the bridge, again and again, and again, until they eventually did it 10 times.

"Didn't we only enter the room 8 times? If we went back ten times, then doesn't that mean..." Said Serena.

"We're stuck. We're in a loop, Looks like it's part of this floor." John said.

"Then the only way out is..." Ariel said.

"Yeah, we're going to have to beat whatever's down there, to get out. Otherwise, we'll stay stuck here..." John replied.

"So that's the boss? It's the first I've heard of this... Usually, we're supposed to fight the weaker mobs before meeting the boss." Said, Serena.

"That's the only explanation that I can think of. Either way, it saves us a lot of time." John replied.

"Why are you always so optimistic? Water is where that monster's going to be at its strongest If we fight it in the water we probably won't survive..." Serena surmised..

"What other choice do we have?" John asked as he looked down at the water.

"Pila aqua," He said as he looked over at the water.

The water opened up and formed a sphere; John moved it around a few times and jumped inside. Serena and Ariel followed right after.

"Yep, we can breathe and talk. This will do." John said as he slowly descended the sphere with them inside further and further down.

"Not even surprised at this point." Said Serena.

"So am I." Said Ariel.

'Let's ignore that. Still, why can't I get this bad feeling off my chest? I'm starting to think we should have turned back… Even Rose herself said that there was a huge difference in levels from the 10th to 11th floor. I hope I'm just overreacting…' John wondered.