With Kali's help, they were able to skip through three floors in one night. Although it was fast, there was one drawback to it too.
"My ass and the back of my thighs sting..." Kali complained, patting her still-stinging backside.
She had to sit motionless as a rock, unable to move even a little. Her only relief was whenever they stopped to rest or right before entering the next floor, allowing blood to recirculate and reach her lower body, which was slowly turning numb.
Still, she didn't look too angry about it. After all, her skill mastery was increasing fast due to continuous use of the Shadow Concealnt skill. Now, the range increased to a radius of two ters, able to cover the entire EM Van completely and hide its traces from the world.
Of course, the wider the range, the less potent the concealnt gets. As such, Kali limited the range just enough to cover their vehicle, maximizing stealth.
Right as midnight struck, they set up camp near the entrance of the 55th floor, resting until dawn.
Every day after that, the sa process was followed.
They wake up, finish preparations, go around hunting all flying monsters during the day, and fly across the sky stealthily at night, clearing about 5-6 floors every day. At tis, when they reach certain levels, they would visit the Class Exchange Hall briefly before continuing, upgrading their class, and checking if the other two could also get a legendary.
Just like that, with nothing much happening, two weeks passed.
During that ti, the girls raised their levels to 100, with Aster reaching 110. They were significantly below the average level for adventurers on the 100th floor, where they typically reach around 130 before crossing.
They weren't sad about it but rather pleased that they finally reached their goal. The 100th floor is like a threshold for all adventurers to cross. After all, past that floor, the dungeon finally shows its "fangs."
But of course, that only begins "after" the 100th floor.
This floor was, by convenience, a "safety floor" where no monsters were present. As such, it was used as a trading hub by adventurers from various floors. After its founding, this place transford into a functional city spanning the entire floor, which they nad Centuria!
What? Right, it's not a mistake. It is a trading hub for "various floors"!
Safety floors like the 100th floor are the only places exempted from the convention of "unable to revisit lower floors."
But of course, there's a catch. Each Safety Floor can only connect to the next and previous Safety Floor relative to their position.
For example, the 100th Floor can only connect to the 200th Floor, but the 200th Floor can connect to the 300th and the 100th Floor trading hubs at the sa ti.
This limitation also applies to the adventurers on the aforentioned floors. Even if they tried to visit the 200th Floor through the 100th Floor's portal and then tried to enter the 300th or 201st Floor, they would fail, blocked by a mysterious force that wouldn't even let them approach the next portal. The sa thing applies if soone from the 300th floor tries to re-enter the 100th floor.
"Alright, everyone. Listen up."
But before they entered the premises of Centuria, Aster gathered everyone for discussion. "Just in case, let remind you that we will be gathering information here."
Information about dungeon floors is also available outside for free, but the quality of "free goods" differs significantly from "paid items".
Maps are a good example. Floor maps sold at the Information Center had few details, but those sold in the dungeon had finer details and possibly important details. Field Boss spawn points, dangerous areas to avoid, and other such details were included in the maps.
Their current task was to collect such "useable" information after splitting up in pairs. Of course, it was a fair split done through a lottery and ended up with quite a sensible grouping, so nobody could really object to it.
Aster was paired with Kali, Cassy with Liz, and Tina, the odd one out, had to look around alone.
"Keep all interactions with others to the minimum, and rember to not remove your mask no matter what."
Aster reminded them one last ti before hiding his face behind a mask. "We don't know if there's anyone here under Lorelai's control, so better be safe than sorry."
The mask they were wearing wasn't rare, with a few adventurers around wearing the exact sa kind as they do. The simple white masks, featuring only tinted glass-obscured eye holes, concealed all the wearer's facial features.
Therefore, they should blend in seamlessly, even if they choose to wear it.
After a few more reminders, Aster scanned everyone's faces one last ti before nodding. "Alright. Then, let's et up here four hours later, at high noon!"
With his words as the signal, all three groups spread out, going toward their designated zone to explore.
Aster and Kali, being the fastest of the three groups, moved to the furthest zone from the entrance, the central market of Centuria, located roughly 20 kiloters from the entrance.
Experience more on empire
Of course, it wasn't easy to reach that place. They had to navigate through the maze-like structure of the adventurer-made city, after all. Without proper district planning, roads were random and hard to access, making their travel take quite a bit of ti.
About 30 minutes later, they finally arrived at their destination.
"Welco to the Central Market! Are you first-tirs? You're in luck~! We offer touring services at a discount right now. We have reduced the price from 1 million to an affordable 400,000 Tels each~!"
"Hey, buddy! Want to check out so weapons? We got a fresh batch from the surface just now! We even have Millicent's latest design weapons here!"
"Psst! I, I have so ch-cheap items for sale o-over here. C-co over here, hehe, hehehe..."
"..."
Just as they arrived, a suspicious crowd surrounded them.
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