The group frowned when they heard that… Regardless, to think that Billy wouldn't have the chance to do anything even in front of such an ambush. Sarah's addition to the party certainly increased their power. Still, the others also had quite the power boost thanks to their new gear.
"Maybe it is because they know how powerful those can be. The other adventurers had been paying attention to us that much…" Billy thought while he was dismantling the monsters.
"What is wrong?" Kate asked. "You look more in thought than usual."
"It is nothing… in any case, you sure like to pay attention to small details, huh," Billy said.
"Not at all. You are just too easy to read," Kate said.
Billy was pretty sure that he had a decent poker face, but maybe that was one of Kate's talents. Nevertheless, Billy hurried since they couldn't be stuck in that fork forever. That being said, given his experience with the dungeon crystal, Billy assumed they wouldn't try the same thing over and over again…
In any case, after finishing collecting the meat, the group chose the left path and soon found a dead end. At that point in time, everyone but Sarah knew what was about to happen… several crabs appeared behind. This time, they were ten… even though only two could attack them at a time…
"This is odd… it is like the logic of the other dungeon doesn't apply here," Billy said after he blinded the first two enemies with Mud Balls.
Alexander and Natalie dashed to attack the enemies, and they split the heads of the crabs in a single moment. Still, then they were attacked by the other monsters behind. Somehow, they reacted on time to block the Water Balls, but they couldn't do much else since the corpses were in front of them. In the end, Lily and Kate joined the fray by firing their projectiles from the sides of the frontlines.
The remaining enemies jumped, which was weird given that they were crabs and landed on the back of the corpses, but Lily and Kate didn't stop their attack. They kept going since it would be faster than waiting for Alexander and Natalie.
"We can't forget the things we learned in the previous dungeon, but we shouldn't rely on them too much," Billy said.
Once they finished the job in that part, the group retreated and then chose the right path in the fork. Things got weird once they found the right path… the corridors of the dungeon began to grow in size until three crabs could walk side by side. That also gave them some extra possibilities…. when the crabs saw Kate and Lily preparing to attack, they finally used Water Wall. Two of them combined their defensive, easily blocked Lily's tattoos and Kate's short spears. As if that wasn't troublesome enough, the last crab used Water Ball and one many times larger crossed the wall and flew toward Billy's head. He didn't use his spear…he used the bracers to block them, and while they trembled and pushed him back a few meters, the job was done. He protected himself just enough to fire back some Wind Balls to destroy the enemy projectiles. However, they kept coming, and when his friends tried to approach, the monsters targeted them.
The group suddenly felt a powerful shockwave of wind coming from behind them, and they immediately realized that it was Sarah's doing. The attack clashed against the Water Walls and completely dispersed them. As expected of Sarah, she was good at that type of big attack.
The monsters tried to raise the Water Walls again since they boosted the power of their projectiles. Still, Alexander and Natalie didn't let them. They charged even faster than usual and went all out and annihilated the remaining monsters.
"When the monsters can use magic, their options increase a lot…" Alexander said while frowning. "I can understand why most people wouldn't be able to clear this first floor."
While that was true, Billy was grateful for it. Those monsters were teaching him a lot of things. After dismantling the monsters, he raised one water wall with one hand, and with the other, he fired a water Ball and made it pass through. While it was true that the projectile grew in speed and power, it couldn't be compared to the monsters. He needed to practice that combination more…
"I knew you were skilled, but to be able to copy their technique on the first attempt…" Sarah said while furrowing her eyebrows.
"It is the power of the Sharingan," Billy replied.
"What is a Sharingan?" Sarah asked.
Billy felt a hard time answering that. He was just joking around, after all. However, Sarah was asking if that was something serious or real. In any case, it would be better to stop joking around.
"I think that with some patience and good observation, pretty much everything can be replicated," Billy explained. "I was referring to that."
Sarah accepted that explanation, but she found it weird about the things Billy said before. Her image of Billy was a bit different. As for the others, they knew that he could be like that from time to time.
Nevertheless, they resumed their exploration, and for a while, they didn't find a single monster. However, they found several parties along the way… it didn't seem like they were moving from their spots, so they were just hunting for the sake of the monsters' meat and not to reach the end of the first floor. Those parties had rather young-looking individuals. They were in their twenties, and they didn't seem that strong.
"They are so young, and yet they don't try to challenge themselves…" Kate said.
"You are quite young yourself…" Billy frowned. "Still, it isn't a bad thing to accept their limits and not to take risks… they might lose their lives here, after all.. It is fine for them to slowly improve themselves day by day."