Chapter 251

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A friendly-looking guard, just above level 300 with a body-hardening skill in a full suit of C-Class grade armor waves us down from almost 10 meters away.

Lydia raises her gaze to meet his as the man yells out.

"You all made it back just in time, and you've brought reinforcements. Even better."

She crosses her arms as we all approach and then comes to a halt right beneath the bold black lettering of the sign spelling out [Restricted].

"Yes, we have made it back. How are things on your end? It seems like we're up to the 18th floor.'

The man gulps and his tone completely changes.

"If that's true, the collapses are only happening faster. It was less than 6 hours since the last one."

He pauses.

"A-And 11 or 12 hours before that was the one before.. And almost a full day-"

The white-haired mage cuts him off.

"So, half the time between every collapse. At this rate, it should be completely break in 6 hours... The Director sure does like to cut it close."

He nods in response.

"It seems that way. We don't have any hunters eligible to defeat floor 20 and above right now. We'll have to leave the higher floors in your hands."

His eyes move to me, then Abby, Fisher, Maria, and Arie. He looks back to Lydia before continuing.

"A team of 6 Elites. I'm happy to see all of you here, but are you sure you'll be able to make it up to floor 25? Even split up? That's well past your classification of a B-Class threat."

I raise an eyebrow and interject.

"What do you mean split up? Why would be have to do that?"

Fisher laughs and butts in.

"I mentioned this earlier to your teammates, but you weren't here to listen."

Abby and I turn to each other, then back over to the smug blue-haired hunter as he takes the lead.

"While we climb the Labyrinth floors, the ones we venture through won't just disappear because we've passed it. The entire Labyrinth will only collapse once the final boss is taken out."

I nod slowly, piecing together this information.

The water mage continues.

"So, while some of us continue to climb, others will have to wait behind on lower floors to protect the city from the dangers within. If we just abandon the lower floors before they fully break, monsters can easily run loose through that shielding."

He points to the massive rectangular metal contraption in front of us.

The guard closes his eyes and nods while turning to bang on the side of the silver wall three times.

"Yeah, this thing can hold back level 350 to 400 level threats at most. It's nearly impossible to craft shielding at a higher grade than that in mass qualities without spending a fortune. The surges have never been this bad, we never thought the Labyrinth would break..."

I stay quiet, as the chatter of my teammates and hundreds of hunters in the square all begin blending together.

It seems this is really a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Labyrinth breaks are this rare, that they never even though to prepare for it. There must be some incredible loot, and even stringer monsters in there.

The face of that Arch Demon's Body Double flashes in my mind's eye as I grin and mutter to myself.

"Looks like I'll get to go all out."

[CH200+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's PowerWhere stories live. Discover now