"This is going to get worse, right?" Icarus asked.
"Yes, a lot worse," Billy asked. "I am honestly surprised that nothing changed on the second floor, but even at this rate. We will have to fight pretty much every minute eventually."
"I don't think my mana or stamina will hold out at this rate," Lucyna said. "I wonder how the manipulator managed to clear this dungeon by himself…"
Billy had some guesses, but he couldn't say for sure, neither the group had too much time to think about it since the tyrants were spawning every minute and they were in a hurry. Although Billy thought that they would run out of energy soon and Billy would have to fight all the battles, the other members of the group withstood their ground for quite a while. Despite the fact that the atmosphere was starting to affect them after twelve hours. Still, something like that was to be expected from one of the most dangerous dungeons of the world...
"Ugh… How can you endure fighting and using this all the time?" Lucyna asked. "I take pride in being a patient person, but this is getting on my nerves."
"You get used to it eventually," Billy replied.
Just like Billy, the others decided to keep wearing the weights as they went down the dungeon. However, they didn't have the time to slowly adjust the weights and they wanted to get stronger faster, so they decided to make each one of them three times heavier than themselves. So, they were fighting while being burned by one ton.
"It gets easier as you level up Brute Strength and Toughness," Billy added. "Although your progress with those skills isn't keeping up with the speed that your impatience is being worn down."
"How about some more time Skip?" Icarus asked.
"That would be the same as eating broccoli in a single bite because it isn't good," Lucyna asked. "I will try to leave that as a last resort for the time being."
Billy didn't know that yet but using Time Skip that often probably wasn't a good idea. Icarus was getting carried away because Billy lent him a source of good mana regeneration, but that wasn't something that he could do often. In any case, based on his experience, Billy assumed that such a skill made the flow of time pass faster… many times faster since all the experience is absorbed in one moment. The cost for him to get the experience of two months was practically one million mana points, but at the same time, the user couldn't do anything aside from what they were thinking of doing when the skill was activated. It was like forcing themselves to do the same thing over and over again until they obtain some result and completely lock all the other options.
In any case, despite the fact that Icarus scouted ahead to find the right path, the group had to travel for twelve hours to reach the fourth floor. Meryl wasn't surprised that it took them so long to reach that level, she was impressed. In the meantime, the other two who didn't have much experience dealing with dungeons were getting worked out quickly. Unlike Billy, who was mentally prepared for pretty much anything, Icarus and Lucyna were more outgoing people who never had to deal with the suffering of grinding in games in their previous lives.
"Let's take a break before going to the fourth floor, we can rest in the path between them," Billy declared.
"We won't get much rest in such a depressing atmosphere and without a bed." Icarus declared.
"You can always leave the dungeon and bring one…" Billy said and then he had an idea.
Although he could endure it, Billy also disliked the atmosphere of the dungeons, that was why he rarely stayed in one for more than six hours. Still, he could relax even there. Just enough to leave the straining tension on his body and to let him keep his guard up for longer periods of time. To help with that, he made a bathtub using magic and filled it with warm water.
"... what do you think you are doing?" Lucyna asked when he saw Billy taking most of his clothes.
"I won't take everything out, don't worry," Billy declared and then jumped into the bathtub with only his pants.
"Seriously…" Lucyna said and then asked.
In the end, Billy enjoyed the bath for ten minutes before Icarus bothered him to leave the bathtub "there. After changing the water, he was the next to use it. Eventually, even Lucyna and Meryl wanted to use it, but they forced Billy and Icarus to leave the area. Billy wished that they could take a hint… Billy had three extremely hot and passionate wives waiting for him at home, he didn't have to look for the nude bodies of other women.
After one hour of rest, the group looked a lot more rested and focused, but Billy knew that things would repeat themselves soon enough. That was the problem of those long-ass dungeons…
"In any case… I am starting to think that this guy hasn't left the dungeon for months," Billy thought. "It seems that he can only control his troops when he is outside, otherwise, those creatures would just move around attacking everything on sight instead of acting like a proper army."
Considering the time that those creatures stopped attacking most of the villages around, Billy would say that the manipulator had two times to grind inside it nonstop… more than enough to get a crazy number of level-ups. Billy didn't want to share his thoughts with the others, but it was hard to believe that they would be able to stop him by themselves. If they insist on that… one of them will die pretty soon.
Billy considered his options regarding that and it seemed that helping them get their Spiritual core would be the best one. However, Billy wouldn't hell them that much without a bigger reason.
