Chapter 135: Plummeting Between Floors!?

While I was being held within Yuki's embrace, which normally would've aroused me to no end given her voluptuous and muscular figure, she was wearing her armor, so instead of my head resting on her massive, soft breasts, my head was on her cold, hard, metal breastplate, and that wasn't comfortable by any means. However, considering our situation, such thoughts were merely fleeting as I focused on playing dead while my body healed itself, though I couldn't help but frown when I heard soft footsteps approaching us.

I couldn't risk opening my eyes, but luckily, I didn't need to; using [Heroes Gaze], I was able to look through my eyelids along with Yuki's armor and body as I eyed the slowly approaching Lucy, who was sporting one malicious expression.

'She had just killed nearly all of her party members, and she's smiling? What a sick person.' Thought Alexander in disgust and anger as he eyed the smiling Lucy, who stood a few meters away while pointing to her staff.

"Hehe, I'm impressed you managed to survive my Fiery Explosions; each one cost roughly a quarter of my mana to cast. Though it seems like you didn't survive without any casualties, I had intended to kill you first and deal with that brat later, but oh well, it doesn't matter now." Remarked Lucy with a vile grin and a wicked chuckle as she kept her distance from Yuki while eyeing her and Alexander's supposed corpse.

"I-I'll kill you." Said Yuki lightly with venom in her voice as she glared at Lucy while protectively holding Alexander, causing him to inwardly praise her acting skills.

'Heh, that's it, Yuki; wonderful job! While you're stalling her, I'll teleport behind her.' Thought Alexander, stopping himself from smiling as he focused on using the skill [Teleport] to appear behind the unsuspecting Lucy.

"Hahaha, kill me? Maybe if you weren't such a useless brute, I'd take you seriously, but I'm a Mage; I'm superior to you! You never had a chance to begin with!" Declared Lucy with a slightly maniacal laughter as she looked at Yuki with a smile before tightly gripping her staff and channeling a substantial amount of mana into it, causing a large fireball, similar to the previous two, to manifest in front of her blue gem at the tip of her staff.

Feeling a sudden amount of intense heat, I smiled as I had just finished preparing my teleport spell, yet just when I was about to use it to appear behind Lucy, the entire floor suddenly shook while loud cracking noises echoed through the cavern as if something was breaking. However, following that, the floor beneath us suddenly caved in while cracks appeared; with this change, the danger I'd been feeling for nearly a whole day suddenly intensified as my heart rate increased.

However, I couldn't do anything since, all of a sudden, the floor beneath gave way, causing all of us to fall through the ground.

"W-What the hell!?" Yelled Lucy in fear as she fell through the ground, plummeting through the air while Yuki and Alexander were a few meters in front of her.

"Y-Yuki, hold on!" Said Alexander as he grabbed Yuki before their figures suddenly vanished, only for them to both appear standing behind the spot where Lucy was previously standing.

Unfortunately, the problem with teleporting was that you couldn't just change your destination on a dime; you'd need a few moments to change the location, and that's why it's vastly inferior to [Blink] during combat, so despite having teleported both Yuki and I, we both ended up appearing in the air since the floor wasn't just destroyed in a small area.

"FUCK." Said Alexander with an unsightly expression as he and Yuki plummeted through the air, following right after Lucy.

'Well, on the bright side, this isn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be, probably because Yuki and I could survive jumping from a skyscraper.' Mused Alexander as he held onto Yuki while looking towards the ground, which was rapidly approaching.

"Brace for impact!" Stated Yuki as she curled into a ball while protecting Alexander, only for her to crash into the ground a few seconds later with a loud thud.

"Y-Yuki, a-are you alright?" Asked Alexander in slight concern as he looked at Yuki, who opened her eyes and nodded before releasing him from her protective embrace.

"Yes, b-but I've seen better days; are you fine, Alex?" Replied Yuki as she winced slightly while watching Alexander stand atop her before exiting the small crater, only to help her.

"Yeah, I'm good, though I'm surprised we'd fallen through the floor. I wonder which floor we're at now, I'm assuming 16." Said Alexander as he quickly helped Yuki out of the crater and onto her two feet before finding one of her shields nearby, only to toss it to her.

"Despite living here for over a decade, I've never heard the tale of an adventure falling through the dungeon floor; are we just that unlucky?" Said Yuki solemnly with a frown as she warily looked at their surroundings, preparing to fight if the need arose.

I didn't know what to say to Yuki, considering she's a veteran, so I just shrugged my arms and unholstered my great swords off my back as I cautiously walked in front, taking the lead since Yuki was quite injured.

"Watch out for Lucy; I doubt she'd die from a simple fall. Unfortunately." Said Alexander as he glanced back at Yuki, who nodded.

While across the rocky floor, from the ceiling collapsing, I subconsciously looked up, curious to see how far we'd fallen, yet, weirdly enough, the ceiling was incredibly high, far higher than it should've been considering we should be on the sixteenth floor, which was only one floor lower.

'If I had to guess, that's at least 175 to 200 meters; that's ridiculous for just a gap in one floor. I'm not seeing things wrong, am I?' Thought Alexander with a suspicious expression as he looked up at the ceiling.

'Not all dungeons are vertical, Master. Just because it has floors doesn't necessarily mean the next floor will be directly below it.' Stated Zartha coldly with a faint frown as she looked out through Alexander's eyes while Trina sat on her lap.

'Really? I've thought that's been the case the entire time.' Said Alexander with a raised eyebrow as he looked up at the incredibly tall ceiling before frowning and shaking his head.

'If that's the case, are you suggesting we're much lower than the 16 floors? Possibly in the 20s?' Asked Alexander as he stabbed Trina into the large stone he was standing on and resting Zartha on his shoulder, which softly glowed at his every word.

'No. that shouldn't make sense. I don't doubt you, Zartha, but my heart is warning me of danger, and if it was merely the 20s or even the last floor with the fifth guardian, I'm confident in winning. If it really comes down to it, I'll just use [Divine Wrath]; it may not have finished the job with Simba, but he's massively stronger than me, not to mention I've gotten quite a bit stronger since then.' Remarked Alexander with a thoughtful expression as he rubbed his chin while gazing at the ceiling, only for him to suddenly turn around, finally noticing Yuki's disappearance.

Not seeing Yuki behind me, I grabbed Trina out of the stone and quickly looked around, though just when I was about to call her name, I sighed in relief when I spotted her in the distance, squatting beside what looked to be a corpse, an incredibly old one as well.

Hopping off the stone, I landed on the smoother ground and approached Yuki.

"Looks like you found your other shield. What are you doing?" Said Alexander lightly as he glanced at Yuki, who looked up at him before looking back down at the skeleton.

"Nothing. My shield was lying on the ground beside this skeleton, and I was just taking a look; he or she seemed to have been here for quite some time. I'm surprised the dungeon didn't absorb its body." Replied Yuki softly as she shook her head before grunting in pain and standing upright, only for her and Alexander to frown towards the end.

"Yeah, that's not a good sign; I've heard some of the adventurers say that the dungeon will absorb anything living after it's died, and the only time it doesn't is when the dungeon is about to overfill. Which would mean a Dungeon Rampage will be happening soon." Remarked Alexander with an ugly expression as he looked at the perfectly intact corpse before glancing at Yuki, only to sigh and affectionately pat her shoulder.

"It's fine; it's been years since then. Besides, I already told you my Mother went out dying like a warrior in battle; there is no need to pity me, Alex." Said Yuki with a soft smile as she looked at Alexander, who sighed before nodding and looking away.

"Haa, yes, you're right, sorry about that. Either way, Yuki, this doesn't make any sense; a Dungeon Rampage shouldn't be anywhere close to happening. I've heard there will be other signs we'll be able to spot, like increased monsters, stronger floor guardians, and infighting amongst monsters. We just happened to get unlucky with the strong floor guardian today; either two hadn't happened, so this is weird, don't you think so?" Stated Alexander apologetically as he shook his head before folding his arms, squinting his eyes at the skeleton, only to solemnly look at Yuki, who nodded in agreement.