I freefell completely freely as I didn't even bother controlling it until I was approaching the great lake and used a burst of flame to straighten out before I slipped below the surface with a splash face first. The cool water was satisfying against my skin and with a kick of my legs I shot up and through the surface of the water. I flexed my energy and iced over the entire lake in an instant before making my way to it's edge that led further down into the dungeon.-
Amphisbaena was also out of commission as it had been killed by the Loki familia not long ago as they went on their own expedition. Otherwise I would have killed it myself to collect it's stone at the very least. As for the other parts I could get from it I frankly didn't need any at the moment as I hadn't gone through the ones I got from killing it previously. The twenty eighth floor was known as the "under garden" and is basically a field of flowers covering the whole floor like a massive elven garden. It was also a safe zone.-
The twenty ninth to thirty second floors are called the "jungle ravine" as they are covered in tall jungle like trees and differs from the Tree labyrinth because of the level three dinosaur type monsters that fill it. Bloodsaurus that were five meter tall bipedal red skinned t-rex looking things that had no fear of death and were territorial as fuck. Terrorwings that were large swooping Pteranodon like monsters with literal razor sharp wings. Scavers that were small predatory little fucks that were seemingly timid as they ran away from adventurers only to actually lead them into ambushes.-
The most feared was the Tyrants though that were massive T-rex like things with dark skin covered in bone plates and breathed fire. For some reason there was only ever one alive at a time and they were nightmares to deal with for most adventurers because they hunted by setting the jungle around them aflame. It was also the resident level four monster on the floor and not one at the lower end of that spectrum either. This wasn't a wide selection of new monsters but all of them were level three minimum and towards the top of that level at that. -
Add on the fact that aside from the Tyrant all the others were in copious amounts on the floor and you'd see why people didn't solo past the water palace floors without an overwhelming level advantage. The average level four could handle maybe two or three of any of these at once relatively easily but seven? Nine? Twelve? No, they'd be worn down and killed. Even level fives would need to be on their toes here and further if they were alone. Well most fives that is. These things came at me and I swatted them like bugs, barely an inconvenience really.-
There was no point in even exploring this set of floors as unlike the great tree labyrinth there were no real valuable resources here beyond the stuff dropped by the monsters. Ironically it was thanks to the Tyrants that this set of floors was the most well mapped of all as the things burnt down the trees exposing the full size and shape of the floor in the process. Supposedly there was also a super monster that had once been summoned into existence on the thirtieth floor that wiped out all but one of the Astraea familia at the time.-
The details were scarce though on it as only Ryuu from the hostess had seen the thing and might know how to summon it but for obvious reasons she didn't talk about it. The funny thing is that most people didn't even realize she was one of the few blacklisted adventurers who were still around. The reason she was blacklisted was simply because she once killed a god. The death of her familia had led her on an extermination mission where she killed a LOT of people before the crusade ended with the death of the god whose familia was responsible for her owns destruction.-
Still the super monster was only a brief thought of mine as I moved through these floors killing anything that got in my way. The materials weren't worth the effort of refining as they were no better than anything I already had but the stones I took as I could never have enough level three stones. I didn't run into a tyrant so that was a slight disappointment but I just shrugged and moved on to the next biome floor set of the dungeon. Arguably the most annoying as well, floors thirty three to thirty six. -
Immediately entering these floors I felt the difference was beyond visual. The air of these floors was hot and dry with the heat radiating not only from the false "sun" above but the dense yellow sand below. Yes these floors were straight up deserts floors and the monsters that lived here were annoying little shits that ambushed you from below the sands. Those monsters didn't even have names because they were never truly seen in their entirety. Merely the parts that shot out to attack were. They were just collectively called sand lurkers as a result.-
I wasn't terribly interested in them myself as nothing that refused to fully show itself and merely proved more annoying than dangerous to the average party that reached this far down was worth my attention. No my real focus was on the massive red false "Sun" crystal that sat miles up on the floors ceiling and was the source of the heat that filled the floor. Such a material would likely prove an excellent material for flame attributed equipment. Maybe I'd even be able to make a staff capable of using my full flames power again finally.