I ducked as a Caimanoid sprang up behind me, swiping its claws at my head, before I swiftly aimed my gun back and pulled the trigger, hitting the middle its body with a Pulse Bullet, its body seizing up as it let out a pained roar, before I slipped behind it and stabbed it through the spine.
I pulled my blade back out with a sharp twist, my gaze shifting across to the left as another came charging at me.
I shot towards it as it began to close in, spinning across to the left as it snapped its jaws at my chest, before chanting as I placed my hand on its side...
"
A quiet, dazed growl rang out before it collapsed onto the ground, its eyes slowly shutting as it dozed off.
I then sprinted across the space towards the last three Caimanoids in the vicinity, raising my gun.
The Monsters began to scatter, before several arrows came shooting out, landing around them and eliciting startled snarls from them, keeping the Monsters from spreading out.
I fired a Pulse Bullet at the one to the left, a sharp roar of pain ringing out, before I leapt forward as I closed in, slamming my knee onto the chest of the one in the middle and sending it hurtling back, before whipping my blade across, slicing through the eye of the third one, to my right.
A pained snarl rang out as blood burst out its eyes, the Caimanoid stumbling back, before I turned across to my left as the one I'd hit with a Pulse Bullet charged forward and reached out towards my throat with a furious snarl.
I grabbed its forearm before its claws could reach me, giving its arm a sharp tug to pull it off-balance, before slamming my palm onto the middle of its chest and chanting...
"
A deafening roar of pain as the Caimanoid spasmed violently, its right eye exploding as the white of its left eye turned fully red, the Monster collapsing onto its knees while trembling in agony, unable to get back onto its feet.
Hm, most Mid Level Monsters die when hit with Mana Pulse at full power, maybe its scales absorbed just enough of the attack to save it...not that it'll matter in the end, though.
I then swiftly raced towards the one with the slashed eye, leaping forward as it spun around and whipped its tail across at my legs, before driving my blade straight through the middle of its back and slicing into its spine, the Monster stiffening up sharply before collapsing as its legs buckled, snarling frantically as it tried to get back onto its feet, but to no avail.
"
As it got closer, I stepped forward and plunged my blade into the middle of its stomach, slicing through its flesh before I gave the blade a sharp twist as it reached the Caimanoid's spine, a shudder erupting across its body as it fell over and hit the ground with a thud.
"
The others came walking over as I began consuming the Mana of all the paralyzed Monster, before extracting their Cores one by one.
This marks the halfway mark of this Dungeon, the twenty-fifth floor. Despite the tricky, unpleasant terrain, it's been pretty smooth sailing so far.
We only encountered groups of five or less on the first ten floors, then no more than ten each on the next ten floors, and it's been groups of around ten to fifteen over the last five floors.
Based on this pattern, we'll probably encounter groups of upto twenty from the thirtieth to fortieth floors, and groups of upto twenty-five across the nine floors prior to the Boss Room.
"You know you can get more involved, right? I kinda feel bad that I'm getting most of the Cores," I said to Lector sheepishly.
"It's fine, I'm not going to risk getting ahead of myself. My role is to back you up when necessary, and since you've been absolutely dominating these Caimanoids, there haven't been many times when I've really needed to provide any back up," He replied with a smile.
"And I can't do anything since my Magic is too risky to use in such a damp place, I feel so useless," Added Elicia with a sigh.
"That's a bit how I've felt on almost all the raids we've gone on with Kai. We've barely had any injuries whatsoever, so I haven't had a whole lot to do as a Healer," Chimed in Ferna wryly.
"I mean, that's definitely not a bad thing. A Healer not having much to do is good, since it means no one's getting hurt, that's absolutely a good thing," Pointed out Will.
"Yeah, can't deny that."
"Remember, be careful not to damage their skin," Remarked Lector, as I sliced open one of the Caimanoids' stomachs and send Devour inside the opening, eating up its innards.
Some Monster species have body parts that are used as materials or ingredients in weapons and gear, and Caimanoid skin is often used in making armor.
So, I haven't been able to fully consume these Monsters, I eat as much of their insides as I can with Devour, while avoiding damaging their skin too much.
But Devour isn't a Skill I can wield with a whole lot of finesse, so it's pretty much impossible to completely and cleanly consume everything except the skin.
As a result, I've only been able to consume around seventy percent of the bodies of each Monster, according to Ai, meaning my stat gains through Devour are even less than usual.
Valuable Monster parts are gathered by the teams sent to mine the Mana Crystals after raids are successfully completed.
If the Dungeon consisted of Monsters with parts that are considered valuable, a larger team is sent into the Dungeon.
The teams sent to mine Mana Crystals and gather Monster parts are called Cleaners, and they're mostly made up of Awakened individuals with J-Ranked Potential, maybe a few Q-Ranks too.
While the job of a Cleaner doesn't pay anywhere nearly as well as Hunting does, it's still a fairly lucrative gig, and the risk is pretty minimal since the Cleaners only come into play after all the Monsters are dealt with.
Anyway, since I can't use Devour more freely, having to eat these Monsters so selectively and partially has really been slowing us down, almost ten hours have passed already.
It isn't unusual for raids to take longer than a full day, there have been plenty of cases of Critical Level Dungeons taking more than two days to conquer.
And at the rate we've been going at, this one is definitely going to be pushing twenty-four hours, especially since the number of Monsters we run into gradually increases the further up we go...