Dungeon Floor 1: The Beginning Road
Environment: Wide, smooth stone hallways illuminated by faint, magic-infused light crystals set into the walls. The air is slightly damp.
The group of thirty students—a mix of high and general class nobles—entered the dungeon in their pre-assigned formations. Leon led his small squad, comprising only himself and Olivia, at the vanguard. The five love interests and their large entourages were positioned on the floor above, ready to begin their descent after the lower floors were cleared.
Monsters: Giant Rats and Kobolds (Rank F-E equivalents).
Leon and Olivia moved quickly. Leon's focus wasn't just on killing the monsters; it was on efficiency and crowd control, per Bucky's training
A pack of Giant Rats scuttled toward them from a side passage. Leon met the charge, not with a killing blow, but with tactical disruption. He pushed his B-Rank Wind Grace out, creating a high-pressure wave that blasted the rats backward, stunning them against the wall.
"Olivia, clear the path forward, but leave a few stunned ones!" he commanded through the din.
Olivia, wearing her simple but sturdy armor and wielding Epirus, a sleek silver bow that hummed with latent light energy, responded instantly. Her C-Rank Light Grace activated, and she nocked a light arrow made of pure, celestial energy.
Thwack! A focused light arrow struck one rat, killing it instantly. She then fired two non-lethal, light-based stun shots at the others.
"Send them up!" Leon shouted.
A few conscious, angry giant rats and kobolds, intentionally bypassed by the vanguard, scurried past the entrance they had come from, heading up the stairs toward Floor 2.
"We need to speed up," Leon muttered to
Olivia,
a determined smile on her face she responded, "right!"
Dungeon Floor 2: The Gnoll Warren
Environment: The polished stone gives way to rougher, brown-hued caverns. The ceilings are lower, and the passages wind unpredictably.
Monsters: Goblins and Gnolls (Rank E equivalents).
The strategy continued. Leon was an expert in the "mop-up" phase. His Masamune katana, crackling with minor lightning, severed enemy weapons and armor with ease, a demonstration of its magic-severing ability. He incapacitated more often than he killed, using focused sonic blasts to deafen the intelligent gnolls and wind currents to trip up the goblins.
Olivia was the perfect support. Her light arrows from Epirus provided lethal ranged backup, while her Rank C Solar Empowerment allowed her to conjure a small, localized 'light' effect that boosted Leon's strength and speed, turning him into an untouchable blur in the tight quarters.
"My allies gain strength," she whispered, a soft light enveloping Leon.
"Keep it moving, keep it moving!" Leon barked. They moved like a well-oiled machine, leaving a wake of stunned and disoriented monsters that were quickly funneling up toward the elites in a wave of minor chaos.
Dungeon Floor 3: The Fungus Grove
Environment: Damp, mossy walls and bioluminescent fungi provide eerie lighting. The ground is soft and unstable, slowing movement. This is the designated turnaround point for this orientation.
Monsters: Giant Spiders and Poisonous Frogs (Rank E-D equivalents).
This floor introduced environmental hazards. The ground was treacherous, designed to trap novices.
"Careful, the ground is soft here," Olivia warned.
A massive Giant Spider dropped from the ceiling. Leon didn't miss a beat. He used his Wind Dominance to levitate slightly, moving across the soft ground unimpeded.
"They're too slow," Leon noted. He saw the professor waiting near the stairs up, ready to turn the students around.
Leon knew he had to let something substantial through to truly stress test the elites and, more importantly, mess with the Prince's carefully orchestrated run. He dispatched the spiders with quick lightning strikes from Masamune, then used a localized water burst (Rainweave) to flush a cluster of dangerous Poisonous Frogs up the stairs.
"Sorry, not today," Leon thought as he ran past the observation point, signaling they were continuing for "extra credit."
Dungeon Floors 4-6: The Ooze Pits
Environment: The caves open into larger, multi-tiered chambers with pools of dark, stagnant water and slippery moss. Traps become more common (simple pit traps, tripwires).
Monsters: Gray Oozes, Ghouls, and Skeletons (Rank D equivalents).
"Okay, this is where it gets interesting," Leon said, pushing ahead. They were now in unofficial territory for the students behind him, where monsters would require their full power.
A Gray Ooze slid from the ceiling, attempting an ambush. Olivia, using her heightened senses from her Grace, fired an arrow instantly. The light-infused energy of Epirus purified the Ooze on contact, a testament to the power of her Purification ability, dissolving it instantly.
Further in, they encountered Ghouls rising from shallow graves. Leon's Masamune severed their latent magic, instantly turning them into harmless, inanimate corpses.
They navigated the next few rooms quickly, pushing the monsters they encountered ahead of them toward the upper levels. Leon was making sure the Prince's group had a "fun" time, sending several ghouls and a skeleton commander up the stairs.
Finally, they reached a wide large room with a door, the exit for the sixth floor.
"We made it," Olivia said, breathing heavily but smiling, her confidence having grown immensely during the raid.
"Yeah," Leon grinned back, wiping some monster ichor from his armor. "And I think we just gave the higher ups a little extra homework."
Omni POV: Above
On the fifth floor, Prince Julius and Jilk Fia Marmoria found themselves overwhelmed. Instead of the typical trickle of a few low-rank monsters, a continuous stream of angry Gnolls, Goblins, and even several Ghouls from the deeper levels were flooding their path.
"Jilk! Form a defensive line!" the Prince barked, his Grace flaring with ocean blue energy as he desperately tried to hold the line against the sheer number of foes.
"Where are these coming from?" A random female student, shrieked from the back, as a ghoul managed to break through their disorganized front line, only to be cut down by Chris Fia Arclight.
The elites were being tested in a way the Academy never intended, while Leon and Olivia simply walked through the floor six portal, leaving chaos in their wake.