Level Eater
Chapter 189

After leaving the church and going straight down the stairs, they saw the water area that returned to the dungeon's regular route.

When Tatsuro and the others jumped in and were completely submerged in water, the previously stopped function began working again.

|||||||[Deep Sea Mode] resuming|||||||

With that announcement, the system activated and displayed the remaining time.

So they quickly passed through the deep-sea cave and leaped out into the vast deep sea where they had been before.

From there, like when they came here, they connected to Jeanne, who had transformed into her [True Form], with wires, and she used her large wings to paddle through the water while aiming upward.

Any monsters that appeared during this time were dealt with by Tatsuro and the others.

They also made sure to look for bird cages with buttons that could extend their deep-sea activity time, not forgetting to extend their Deep Sea Mode duration.

After continuing this for about an hour, Tatsuro and Cardina's underwater Dispel magic finally detected the surface. Along with something extra.

To communicate this to everyone, Tatsuro amplified his voice using water magic.

"Everyone! I've found the exit from this deep-sea hell!" (Tatsuro)

When this was conveyed, everyone's faces lit up with joy.

Even though the Deep Sea Mode prevented breathing problems and pressure effects, it had been stressful to blindly head upward while being chased by time.

But there was one more thing that needed to be communicated.

"And one more thing! I've confirmed multiple giant monsters spread across the surface. From what I can tell through the Dispel magic, they seem to be octopus or squid-type monsters with multiple legs! Imagine them spreading their legs across the entire surface, making a lid!" (Tatsuro)

"Eww. That sounds gross." (Ai)

Though Ai's words were lost in the water wall and didn't reach the others well, everyone shared the same sentiment.

However, they had to defeat these disgusting monsters to see the sun.

Tatsuro activated [Spirit Eyes] to determine whether the enemies were physical or magic type.

He noticed their life force color was stronger than their magical power, with a slight mix of colors typically seen in water magic users, indicating they were physically oriented but possessed water magic skills.

"They seem to use some water magic skills, but I'll handle that with Cardina and Nana. Everyone else, watch out for physical attacks." (Tatsuro)

Since voices couldn't travel well, everyone nodded to show their understanding.

Water magic movements could be detected before they occurred when observed with [Spirit Eyes].

So, they had Cardina and Nana, a curse magic user whose magic was the opposite phase of water magic, prepare anti-magic in advance.

With their fighting spirit at its peak, as Jeanne paddled her wings to ascend when they were several dozen meters from the surface, the enemies noticed them.

The monsters simultaneously extended their tentacles toward them.

"Haaaaah!" (Ai)

In response, Ai released her jeweled sword slash using all the hands of Gundari Myoo, like during the dungeon battle.

Completely ignoring water resistance, the sparkling slash cut through bundles of countless tentacles, pierced through the monster's main body above and flew beyond the surface.

However, there were still multiple monsters floating on the surface, and perhaps sensing the body fluids of the monster Ai had defeated, they clustered together to block Tatsuro and the others' path.

Then Tatsuro's [Spirit Eyes] caught sight of large amounts of water magic-type power being released from the surface downward.

It seemed all the clustered monsters were trying to use the same magic.

"Cardina, start analysis! Nana, deploy curse magic power! I'll shape it!" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

"Understood!" (Nana)

Cardina began analyzing the magical power of the water magic that hadn't even been activated yet, investigating what form it would take.

Then based on those results, Tatsuro used Nana's power to create anti-magic of the opposite phase.

And here too, Tatsuro's [Spirit Eyes] proved useful.

He could now clearly see the phase form of enemy magic that was previously only understood through anti-magic sensations, allowing him to construct it faster and more efficiently than before.

(If I had these eyes during Leah's curse, it might have been much easier) He thought

He even had the luxury to think about such unrelated things while completing the anti-magic within one second of the enemy's magic completion.

It seemed they were trying to create multiple whirlpools to disturb the ocean currents and throw them off.

While each one's range was wide, they didn't seem strong enough to tear bodies apart, but getting caught in multiple vortices could have been quite dangerous as the body would be pulled in different directions.

However, this time all of them were canceled the moment the water started to swirl, resulting in failure, and the monsters floating on the surface seemed confused about why their magic hadn't activated.

And during this time, the other side took the opportunity to press the attack.

Tatsuro used combination magic with Jeanne to create an even more powerful and larger whirlpool than what the enemy had attempted, using water and wind.

With this magic, they gathered the clustered large squid or octopus-type monsters, gradually shrinking the whirlpool and compressing them forcefully into one place.

Several had already died by this point, but they mercilessly continued to compress the whirlpool smaller.

During this time, Athena donned her [Dragon Armor] and extended her [Dragon Path] straight toward the center of the whirlpool.

She then removed the wire connecting her to Jeanne from her waist and signaled to Tatsuro with her eyes.

Tatsuro then created fresh water with water magic to cover everyone's surroundings as Athena advanced alone.

"Here I go──" (Athena)

Muttering this underwater, she changed her [Dragon Armor], [Dragon Path], and the amber smoke-like dragon force emanating from her limbs to lightning attribute.

Then, riding the lightning rails of the [Dragon Path], she charged toward the compressed monsters while scattering purple lightning underwater.

At that moment, Tatsuro and Jeanne released their magic and stopped the whirlpool.

The surviving compressed monsters would then be released and scatter into the sea.

However, before that could happen, the mass of lightning arrived, electrocuting and killing them all.

"Alright. It's done~" (Athena)

"Good work!" (Tatsuro)

While giving words of appreciation to Athena, who was waving back after clearing the surrounding monsters, Tatsuro, and the others quickly headed toward the surface where she was.

Finally, everyone emerged from the sea and their faces broke through the surface all at once.

||||||| [Deep Sea Mode] temporarily deactivated. Remaining time has been paused.|||||||

Though thinking they could still explore using the remaining time since it was only temporarily deactivated, Tatsuro looked around to search for the point to the next level.

Believing that the luminous pond must have some power when he activated [Spirit Eyes] the surroundings became pitch black, but he could see an unfamiliar power color in the shape of a round pond in the direction diagonally right from the front, separate from Ai and the others and the monsters in the distance.

"The point to the next level should be somewhere in that direction" (Tatsuro)

"You can see that with your spirit eyes too?" (Ai)

"Yeah. It's surprisingly useful" (Tatsuro)

Tatsuro nodded and replied to Ai's words as she looked at his rainbow-colored eyes.

At first, he thought it was questionable, but these eyes that could see only power while ignoring all obstacles had unparalleled strength in searching for powerful things.

Because neither powerless humans nor monsters exist in this world.

While rejoicing at this unexpected harvest in an unexpected place, they collected the monster corpses in the [Infinite Item Field] and then rode on Jeanne to fly toward the point to the next level.

"So what we were fighting were huge octopi?" (Ai)

"It's quite a spectacle from above~" (Athena)

Though they thought they were big when looking up from underwater, there were still many more drifting around when viewed from above, desperately stretching their long limbs trying to catch Jeanne who was above.

"I wonder if those are edible. Can I catch one?" (Ai)

"Sure. Let's check it out later" (Tatsuro)

"You're going to eat that? It doesn't look very appetizing..." (Leah)

"In Dad's world, they eat something similar to that, right?" (Athena)

"That's right~" (Ai)

While answering Athena's question, Ai took out her whip and extended it toward the octopus below.

The whip stretched longer and thinner, piercing through the giant octopus's crown and continuing through to its mouth near the base of its legs.

After confirming this, Ai planted her feet firmly on Jeanne's back and raised the whip like a fishing rod.

She then lifted the octopus higher than where Jeanne was flying, and while releasing energy from her whip, pulled it out with all her might.

Despite having a clean hole through its head, the monster was still actively writhing as it fell.

"Tatsuro. I'm going to cut it into four pieces, so please collect it!" (Ai)

"Got it. Jeanne, go under it the moment it's cut" (Tatsuro)

"Neigh!" (Jeanne)

Ai handed her whip to Gundari Myoo and readied her jeweled sword, releasing Ki slashes vertically and horizontally in a cross to quarter the octopus.

Timing it perfectly, Jeanne increased her flight speed and quickly moved under the octopus corpse, and Tatsuro collected it in his [Infinite Item Field] before the body fluids could scatter.

They collected three more octopi before reaching the point to the next level and entering the glowing pond.

Though they were quite delayed due to spending time in the extra stage, they had finally arrived at the fourth level.

They were on guard in case attacks would come flying at them as soon as they entered, but nothing like that happened, and they could only hear silence.

Feeling wetness at their feet, they looked around to see water trickling down from the top of a brown wall about twenty meters ahead, and at their feet was a straight shallow water area three meters wide and two centimeters deep.

Looking left and right, there were brown two-tiered walls. These walls had eight caves on the first tier and eight on the second tier.

There was nothing else particularly notable, and looking behind them showed only the same brown wall with trickling water as the front.

"Um... There's nothing here, what should we do?" (Ai)

"If I can't see anything with [Spirit Eyes], does that mean there are no monsters here?" (Tatsuro)

"Is there no point to the next level either?" (Ai)

"No, there isn't. Cardina, did you find anything?" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee" (Cardina)

"Nothing, in particular, she says. How about you, Leah?" (Tatsuro)

"Even with [All-Seeing Eye], there's nothing special..." (Leah)

"Right" (Tatsuro)

As they were about to become lost about how to proceed to the next area, suddenly Cardina's search magic detected monster responses.

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

"Monsters? Wait, something..." (Nana)

"Something?" (Ai)

"Everyone get into battle formation! A large number of monsters are coming in!" (Tatsuro)

""""""───!?"""""""

Though it had been completely silent until just now, suddenly large numbers of monster responses appeared from the caves in the left and right walls, and the sound of their wandering gradually grew louder.

Everyone quickly readied their weapons and prepared for the incoming attack.

Then from the total of thirty-two caves on both sides, monsters that looked exactly like centipedes and were about one meter in size came pouring out, heading straight for Tatsuro and the others.