The 18th floor of the dungeon, more commonly referred to as a safe zone, or staging point for deeper raids, currently had an army of their very own. Each adventurer down there had prior experience in dealing with monsters at and below this floor, plus they'd all received a little hand on training from some of the Ganesha familia. In short, they were individually powerful, and ultimately were quite relaxed. Then came the quakes.
"Hey! What's happening?"
"An evil quake? This can't be good news." A god murmured to themselves, in a tent surrounded by guards.
The other god stepped out of the tent to take a look with their own eye, the former one followed shortly after. "It's too early for this…"
"Just what is the dungeon…"
They'd heard an adventurer mutter in disbelief a sense of destruction, and revulsion began falling over the floor.
One adventurer looked to the large tree in the center of the floor, just in time to see the reconnaissance group returning, their expressions said everything that was needed. However, once they arrived at where the main force of this battle were stationed, in other words, the level 7 adventurers. The whole floor began to move, both literally and figuratively.
Adventurers were woken up, if they hadn't already been rudely awoken from their rest. Each quickly arming themselves for battle.
Not a moment sooner, the whole floor quaked, the ceiling gave way to several massive breaks, where a goliath clad in the deepest of black fell from them.
"One, two, three…" A level 6 started counting. "By my count there's 12 in all."
"That just means there's enough to go around."
"Let's take care of this before the other force arrives."
"Other force?" A level 7 questioned.
"Yeah the report from the team that just returned. Apparently the specialized unit Lord Ouranos sent to help out decided they'd be of better help on the 19th floor."
"And let me guess, they didn't guarantee that they could handle everything, right?"
"Right."
"Well, that just means there's something crazy coming. Go on and take care of the 10 black goliaths."
"But ma'am, there's 12…" a level 6 questioned, attempting to point out the count until they watched 2 of the goliaths disappear leaving behind a crystal of incredible scale. "Never mind, I'll go take care of as many of them as I can." His helm fell with a firm nod of his head.
"Make sure you try to leave the crystal behind if you can. Our friends in the special team could use them in an emergency for a boost to themselves." The level 7 ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." He left along with the handful of his peer leveled fellows, and some more level 5s.
The level 7 sighed as her sword found a new resting place right there, next to her stool. Meanwhile some of the others who'd just arrived a moment ago for their standby duty could scarcely understand what they just witnessed.
"Hey, did you see her even move?"
"Not in the slightest."
"She took out two of those crazy things out there like it was nothing."
"Yeah, instantly too."
"And now she's drinking an ale like nothing happened…"
"I guess Level 7 is really no joke."
The other level 7 chuckled, seeing the slight blush his current partner had.
"You were never good at taking praise. You must be anxious."
"You have no idea… By the way, do you feel it?"
"Yup, we'll be needed quite soon. Thankfully it'll take some time for them to gather here, so as long as we handle them all in quick order everything should be fine."
"If we can't handle it, I'm sure Silence will manage to lend us a hand, despite how high up she is right now."
"Agreed, her magic is utterly insane."
"Know what she told me?"
"Same thing she said to me. Her attack magic can reach the whole world over, under the right conditions of course."
In the background, the group of level 5 and 6 adventurers had all nearly completed the destruction of the black goliaths. Soon the last one had fallen, and the groups with a level 4, and 3 level 3s moved out in patrol groups. For clean up, assistance, and reconnaissance again. Though a few were sent to the great tree, to pick apart the monsters which managed to reach the 18th floor.
Then, the specialized advance squad appeared, from the entrance led by a dual sword wielding lizard man. His presence felt like that of a level 6, and it also shook a few adventurers to their core seeing him.
"Hey there friend, the name's Lyd."
A level 6 who'd just finished the last black goliath arrived.
"Oh, Lyd, what's up?"
"Our party got split up down there. And the Amphisbaena is on its way up here too."
"Let me guess, it doesn't look normal right now either, right?"
"Yeah, when we sighted it last, it had black scales, and red horns. It also felt like it was borderline level 7, I think. Hard to tell for me ya know how it is." Lyd explained with a half embarrassed chuckle towards the end.
"When it arrives, it'll probably be in one of the many bodies of water here… Fortunately, its strength will be considerably reduced under these circumstances." The level 6 thought, rubbing his chin, then turned to a level 4 and his group. "You, take your group and report that an irregular Amphisbaena is on the way. I'm sure that'll put our level 7s to prepare for what we call the "Oh Shit" moment." He ordered, then let out a laugh.
"Yes sir!" the level 4 and his level 3s bounded off.
"I must say it's nice seeing an adventurer so friendly." Lyd sighed.
"Well, I'm not totally at ease around you. We were just warned ahead of time what you were."
"That's fine, there's always a first step to everything." Lyd laughed, then moved with a blinding speed, cutting down a monster that'd appeared behind a level 3.
"Huh?!"
"Oh, sorry about that. No monster is going to get away with killing people while I'm around. Unless it's stronger than me, then I'll need help." He laughed. "Anyway, you alright, miss? I'll see to it that Marie treats your wounds."
"Eh?"
…