From a bird's-eye view above, the group stood at the mouth of a towering cliff cave. And directly ahead, stretching before them, was an impossibly massive waterfall that seemed to bridge heaven and earth. The roar of cascading water was deafening, and a wall of mist rolled over them.
The waterfall's freefall played nature's grand music.
Crystal ceilings formed countless valleys and cliffs.
Airborne mist refracted light into shimmering, dreamlike rainbows.
Harpies and Song Birds soared through the air. Their shrill cries echoed across the cavern, feathers scattering through the sky in sweeping arcs.
A breathtaking, almost fantastical water paradise unfolded before their eyes.
The natural landscape hidden inside the Dungeon drew involuntary gasps from everyone. Every pair of eyes sparkled.
And the crown jewel of this vista, the single most spectacular thing dominating the center of their view, was the absolutely, ridiculously, stupidly enormous waterfall.
Leon threw back the hood of his cloak, stitched from Undine Cloth, jaw dropping, eyes going wide. Staring at a waterfall bigger than anything he'd seen across two lifetimes, he froze for a beat before a heartfelt greeting from his homeland burst out:
"Holy shit, that's insane!"
That blunt, unfiltered praise was the highest honor he could bestow upon the soul-shaking spectacle before him.
The rest of the group had been equally mesmerized by the great blue waterfall, until Leon's enthusiastic profanity snapped them back to reality.
"So this is the legendary..."
"The Great Fall!!!"
The waterfall's thunder rolled like a sky full of stormclouds howling in unison. Its deep, resonant rumble crossed the vast distance and still hammered against everyone's eardrums.
"Th-that's incredible! Even in the forests back home, there's never been anything like this!"
Laurier's face was flushed red with excitement. She grabbed Aura's hand, bouncing on her feet and gesturing wildly, trying and failing to put the grandeur into words.
Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha, drawing on deeper wells of experience, snapped out of their daze quickly. They set the breathtaking beauty aside and switched to an adventurer's mindset, scanning the environment and potential threats of this unique floor with sharp eyes.
Rose carefully stepped forward, approaching the cliff's edge. She narrowed her amber eyes and peered downward, spotting a massive cavern at the base of the crystal cliffs directly opposite the waterfall. Or rather, an astonishingly vast pool of water.
"By my estimate, this waterfall originates from the bottom of the Great Tree Labyrinth and drops straight through Floors 25, 26, and 27 in one go... a geological structure like this has never appeared in any previous floors."
She paused, murmuring thoughtfully:
"The shoreline around that enormous pool at the very bottom should be Floor 27."
"Judging by the height... even a High-Class Adventurer who slipped and fell wouldn't have a prayer of surviving. Damn... What's really wild is how the waterfall manages to plunge straight down through the cavern like that."
"No wonder the handbook kept hammering the point that you have to treat Floors 25, 26, and 27 as a single zone. Now I get it."
Jeanne moved to her side and added:
"A waterfall spanning three entire floors... in all the labyrinth zones we've explored so far, nothing like this has ever existed. It's no wonder everyone who's been here says the same thing: once you reach the New World, everything you thought you knew as an adventurer goes out the window."
After she finished, Leon, Kureha, and Persephone walked to the cliff's edge one after another and looked down. Having confirmed that the intel they'd gathered from various sources was accurate, each of them came away with a much clearer picture of what the "New World" really meant.
Defying common sense. Breaking the rules. Going against every instinct.
This was the unknown that lurked in the Dungeon's depths.
"Laurier, Aura. From this point on, I need you to be careful. Careful, careful, and then more careful. Got it?"
Leon's expression turned serious as he spoke, his gaze sweeping over the Song Birds and Harpies circling near the waterfall, and those deceptively unassuming yet extremely dangerous swarming Iguazu. His eyes lingered on that last group the longest.
In Leon's assessment, Iguazu were easily among the most dangerous monsters in all of Water City. Those kamikaze bastards hit hard, moved at terrifying speed, and attacked in suicidal swarms.
When they came for you, running was nearly impossible. Fighting burned time and energy, and even a veteran adventurer could get wiped if they let their guard down for even a second.
"We'll be careful!"
Only after getting a serious answer from both Laurier and Aura did Leon relax slightly.
Then he nodded to Jeanne, handing command over to her.
Jeanne planted her Banner Lance, expression solemn:
"Everyone, maintain formation. We're moving out. Stay on high alert!"
"Especially for attacks from above!"
"Understood!"
The group answered in unison. Stepping out from the safety of the tunnel exit and truly entering the waterfall zone meant they had to start advancing along the narrow, treacherous path carved into the cliff face.
...
Since this was their first foray into uncharted territory, every single step was taken with extreme caution. Their unfamiliarity with the environment and terrain meant no one could predict what traps or monsters might be waiting in the maze of caverns.
Along the cliffs of Water City, the group carefully navigated layer after layer of caves, slopes, and staircases. After a full hour, they finally reached the embankment belonging to Floor 25.
"Phew... The caves are soaked with mist, the ground is wet and slippery, the path is rough as hell, and on top of all that there's water channels crisscrossing everywhere..."
Laurier wiped the sweat from her brow, quietly grumbling to Aura in an attempt to shake off her nerves.
Aura was about to respond, her eyes instinctively scanning the rushing water beside the path, when...
A thin jet of water, brimming with lethal force, erupted from the channel without any warning and shot straight at Laurier's face!
"Laurier, watch out!"
Jeanne's Revelation triggered almost simultaneously with the attack, but the strike was already right in Laurier's face!
The water cannon came from a monster with a potential Level of 3, launching a sneak attack at a speed that left zero room to breathe. Laurier's pupils contracted. She had no time to react.
In that split second before her head was blown apart, a blue-haired figure appeared in front of the elven girl as if she'd teleported!
It was Rose!
The silver Iris Shield in her hand intercepted the attack's trajectory with perfect precision and rock-solid stability. She pulled her arm back slightly, angling the shield with practiced ease, and deflected the lethal shot like it was nothing.
The water cannon's piercing force slammed into the wall beside the channel, blasting stone fragments everywhere!
"There's... there's a monster in the water!"
...
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