As Rui went down, he scanned the dungeon around him in every direction he could by extending his senses as far in all three hundred and sixty degrees one by one to create a circle. Doing this every split second as he traveled down led to the creation of a tube as he went downwards, mapping circle after circle on top of each other.
He committed all this data to the Mind Palace for later revision, but he was essentially recording which paths within this mapped tube were unfilled and thus open.
On top of that, he made a great amount of progress as he went downwards by simply following tunnels that weren't filled. Covering distance that even he would not have been able to cover under normal circumstances.
He was grateful that the dungeon bedrock wasn't too porous. Otherwise, all the water would have been drained into the bedrock far too soon. Thankfully, because it didn't allow water to single into it too easily, the tunnels would be filled for a few hours, to potentially half a day.
Rui trekked across the tunnels for many hours avoiding the filled tunnels as he chose to stick to the most central part of the Shionel Dungeon he could. He wanted to map as much of the core of the dungeon as he could while he could thanks to choosing the right paths. He also wanted to map the core of the dungeon while the water showed him which parts of the core of the dungeon were worth pursuing and which weren't.
He was quite certain that future endeavors into the dungeon with Kane would become a lot more fruitful than their previous endeavors. They would be able to overtake their competitors and enemies to such a degree that no one would be able to compare to them.
Rui's eyes lit up as his senses picked up on a familiar sensation.
"A new floor!" Rui rejoiced as he laughed out loud. "Hahaha, I'm a genius!"
He didn't always like tooting his horn, however, even he had to admit that the idea of using the fact the paths in which the water drained across the dungeon tunnels was brilliant. The rate of success in finding new dungeons by following the right paths was incredible!
('I can revisit this dungeon floor when I'm done,') Rui made a choice on the spot. ('Right now, exploring the unfilled paths before they dry or drain is most important because I have a time limit for that.')
Even if he found the new floor, what could he do? Kane was still mining the nineteenth floor, and even if Martial Squires were massively superhuman in speed, it would still take time given how big the floor was. There was no point in rushing up to grab him and rush down to clear a dungeon when they weren't even fully done with the prior floor.
This floor was not going anywhere, and the probability of an adventurer stumbling into this new twentieth floor was extremely low. His competitors were still fighting off the more than ten thousand ants that were running around at the higher levels of the Shionel Dungeon. Adventurers had become far more reluctant to simply wander off deeper into the depths of the Shionel Dungeon.
It was far too risky. The ants were annoying because it was as though they didn't even feel pain or fear. They just lashed out in the most aggressive manner without any care!
On top of that, their bites were toxic. The venom wasn't anywhere nearly as potent as the inland taipan, but it caused a tremendous burning sensation atop debilitating swelling. Thus the risk of having a single attack land on them was too great for them to saunter nonchalantly looking for an adventure.
While this certainly wouldn't remain true forever, as the many highly competent and powerful Martial Squires hacked away at the weakling ants one by one, they would definitely annihilate every ant at a rapid pace.
However, Rui was sure that it wouldn't be happening immediately. Thus the probability of anyone stumbling into this new floor was extremely low.
He surged forward with the reassurance that the new twentieth floor would remain a secret. He didn't even bother trying to conduct a preliminary analysis of the dungeon floor, he could do that later as well.
He continued moving down to depths that probably not a single human had ever been to. Simply coming here required a great amount of fortune without bizarre circumstances like the ones that Rui was in at the moment.
It wasn't until an hour or more descending that he ran into yet another floor.
"Unbelievable," Rui murmured. "This is the life. This game is broken."
He briefly considered whether he should turn this into his primary method of investigation from here on out. Perhaps he should store enormous amounts of water in his dimensional storage ring before dumping them down certain sections of the Shionel Dungeon?
"It takes too much water," Rui shook his head.
It was a fun and novel idea, but the only reason it was working this time was that he dumped a gigantic lake's worth of water into the tunnel systems of the dungeon. A lake big enough that it took quite some time to drain out despite the hole being ten meters wide.
He shook his head putting aside such superfluous thoughts.
He didn't have too much time left. He could sense that the water levels were growing shallower as time passed.
He kept traveling deeper.
He ran into another dungeon floor.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
And another.
Half a day had passed, and he had ended up running into twelve floors in total, each larger than the next.
Rui had almost become numb to the discovery of new dungeon floors, even if he was extraordinarily ecstatic. His joy reached another level when he discovered one last floor before the water was all gone. Yet just as he went deeper toward it…
Something changed.
Was it the air?
The temperature of the air was the same. Yet it was the tone of the atmosphere that changed.
He was familiar with this sensation, wasn't he?
His eyes widened as he experienced a titanic amount of pressure, unlike anything he had ever experienced.
No, that wasn't quite right.
"No…" he murmured with a horrified expression. "This feeling…"
He recalled this dread. The fear of a being in an entirely different Realm of power.
The atmosphere only further chilled as he identified the origin of this sensation. Any joy and ecstasy he was previously experiencing melted away as an enormous amount of dread clasped his heart.
His nerves tingled as a chill crawled up his spine.
Primordial Instinct begged him to run away, yet he steeled his expression, preparing himself.
