Year 1451, month 12, day 07

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  Race: Water Core

  Sex: None

  Status: Normal

  Level 15

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  Race: Earth Core

  Sex: None

  Status: Normal

  Level 15

  ***

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  Race: Fire Core

  Sex: None

  Status: Normal

  Level 15

  ***

  “The Earth Core will try to protect the others. Wyn, try to bypass it and deal with the remaining cores first. Woya, your priority is to protect Wyn from attacks, specifically from the Fire Core. Its strikes are easy to dodge and defend against, but they carry a much higher level of power behind them. Be careful and stay focused.”

  I gave these direct orders to the girls as we stood in the corridor of the 15th floor. Before us, the four elemental entities hovered, their forms shifting slightly in the dim light of the dungeon.

  “Yes, master!”

  They shouted their acknowledgement in unison. Immediately, Wyn rushed forward, her dual steel swords held at the ready as she closed the distance toward the monsters. Woya followed a step behind, her movements fluid as she positioned herself slightly to Wyn’s rear left, her shield raised to intercept any incoming fire that might aim for her sister.

  As soon as they took their first few steps into the engagement range, the elemental cores reacted. Their movements were methodical, almost rhythmic, as they took their combat positions. They were inherently slow to move, but they adjusted with a precision that was chilling to watch. The Earth Core did not even attempt to move from its central position, acting as a stationary anchor, while the Fire Core and the Wind Core began to drift slowly toward the flanks. Their snail-like movements were deceptively simple, designed to create a crossfire that would be difficult to navigate.

  While the girls were closing in, the Earth Core initiated its defense. It vibrated for a fraction of a second before launching a series of dense stone balls toward Wyn. The projectiles were meant to disrupt her momentum and force her to change her direction so that she could not reach the other, more offensive cores. Wyn moved with practiced ease, weaving her body and dodging the stone bullets without breaking her stride, but she was quickly forced to contend with the other threats. As she bypassed the Earth Core’s initial assault, she was immediately targeted by the non-stop secondary barrage from the Fire and Wind cores.

  The Fire Core’s attacks were faster and covered a wider area than those of the Earth Core, and they carried significantly more force than the Wind Core’s strikes. Despite the projectiles being relatively slow compared to a physical arrow, the sheer volume of magic meant that Wyn had to rely on large, sweeping dodges to stay clear of the heat. The problem with these maneuvers was that they successfully impeded her progress, making it much harder to close the final few meters to reach the cores themselves.

  This exchange made the fight last longer than a standard encounter, but a more pressing issue soon surfaced. While Wyn was fully occupied with dodging the devastating, wide-range attacks of the Fire Core, her defensive posture was wide open for the Wind Core. The Wind Core’s attacks were particularly weaker in terms of raw impact, but they were significantly faster and more frequent. This was exactly where Woya’s presence became the deciding factor in the skirmish.

  Staying one or two steps to Wyn’s left back, Woya focused entirely on the Wind Core. She used her shield to block the rapid-fire wind blades, ensuring that Wyn could keep her eyes and her blades focused on the primary threats. While it was difficult to absorb a Fire Core’s direct, heavy blow without staggering, Wind Core’s weaker attacks posed no problem for Woya’s guard.

  The core's attacks were fast and delivered with unsettling precision. Every time Wyn showed even a momentary opening after dodging a boulder or a flame, the Wind Core would instinctively increase its frequency of attacks to exploit the gap. This proved to be a challenging issue for Woya, as even the attacks that were technically fired toward her own position were actually calculated to intercept Wyn’s projected path. Woya was forced to overextend her defense, moving her shield in wide arcs to catch the blades and protect her sister at all costs.

  Watching them fight, I couldn't help but notice the unnatural synergy of the monsters. Their teamwork felt as if they were machines connected to the same central network, managed as a single pack rather than a group of living things. It was clear that they did not resemble any organic organism at all. Unlike the monsters we had encountered on the floors leading up to the 10th, which possessed survival instincts and biological patterns, these cores acted like complete machines. I found myself wondering who—or what—decided which monster would appear in which dungeon, and what the logic was behind their placement.

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  Despite the various elemental features and the coordinated efforts of the cores, they were fundamentally slow. The girls, conversely, were fast, disciplined, and highly experienced. Combined with the fact that their levels were already significantly higher than the monsters on this floor, they were steadily closing the distance. The encounter was nearing its conclusion. Wyn had finally reached the Fire Core.

  The Fire Core began collecting red glows at a single point within its center, preparing to launch a final, concentrated fireball. Wyn focused her attention, preparing to dodge this last-ditch attack before delivering a killing blow. She kept the Earth Core in her peripheral vision as well, making sure to avoid its stone projectiles, no matter how slow and easy to dodge they might be in isolation.

  She prepared to take one more step closer to the Fire Core, but she instinctively refrained. She backed off by a few inches, a calculated retreat. A split second after she moved, a stone bullet whistled through the air, passing through the exact spot where her chest would have been. Without waiting for the stone bullet to even hit the ground, Wyn rolled to her right.

  As soon as she vacated her previous spot, the ground there was scorched by a burst of fire, and several wind blades were launched toward the direction of her roll. A few of the blades missed because they were fired while she was still in mid-motion, but most of them were on a trajectory to hit her if she were to stop or falter in that position.

  The problem was that she was running out of room to maneuver. Even if she were physically capable of another large dodge, the sheer frequency of the wind blades was making it difficult to maintain her balance. But despite the danger, she did not bother with the incoming wind attacks. She continued her charge toward the Fire Core. She was able to do this because Woya was right there with her.

  Woya was ready, having waited for this exact moment to block the wind blades. As soon as the Fire Core had committed to its attack, Woya placed herself directly between the Wind Core and Wyn, raising her shield to intercept every blade. She had spent enough time fighting these automated monsters to have fully internalized their combat patterns.

  Under Woya’s shield protection, Wyn rushed the Fire Core. Since she was already within range and the core required several seconds to accumulate enough energy to release another attack, so it was helpless. Wyn closed the gap and delivered a precise stabbing attack with the steel sword in her left hand, followed immediately by a heavy slashing attack with the steel sword in her right.

  The first strike caused the core’s surface to spiderweb with cracks, and several small fragments fell to the stone floor. It seemed like the second attack was almost unnecessary. Either the cores possessed an extremely weak physical composition, or it was a result of the Fire Core focusing entirely on its offensive output rather than its defense.

  The moment the Fire Core was dealt with, Wyn pivoted toward the Earth Core, which was the nearest remaining threat. She did not even glance at the Fire Core’s dissolving form as it was replaced by falling coins. She dashed toward her new prey as 1 silver and 20 copper Obscura fell to the ground behind her.

  With the Fire Core removed from the battle, the machine-like coordination of the remaining monsters began to shift. Without the central damage dealer, the encounter became more like a pair of one-on-one fights, as the cores were forced to face their opponents in a close encounter.

  While Wyn focused her efforts on the Earth Core, Woya decided to finish the Wind Core herself. She had noticed that the Wind Core’s attention had been severed from Wyn, and it was now struggling to track its own targets. She raised her shield and rushed directly toward the floating orb.

  Woya was able to easily block its rapid-fire attacks, and since the core moved its body with such extreme slowness, she reached it in only a second or two. Being faster at attacking was an advantage for the core, but only as long as its projectiles couldn't be easily blocked or absorbed. While Wyn could only deflect a few of the attacks with her swords, it was a different story for Woya and her shield.

  Woya reached the Wind Core and adjusted her timing between its mana pulses to launch a strike. She partially lowered her defense by pulling her shield to the left, creating an opening for her to deliver a powerful stabbing attack with the steel sword in her right hand.

  The blade landed squarely on the Wind Core, causing it to crack all over its spherical body. Because the impact also pushed the monster back and momentarily stopped it from launching any more attacks, Woya dropped her guard further to put more weight into a larger move. She followed up with another heavy stabbing motion toward the core’s center.

  The Wind Core stood still, unable to react, and took the full damage. The attack crumbled its entire existence. Once the enemy was dealt with, Woya looked toward Wyn and saw that she was delivering a final slash toward the Earth Core. The Wind Core disintegrated, producing as many coins as the Fire Core had.

  Wyn’s attack on the Earth Core did not do as much damage as her strikes against the Fire or Wind cores. It seemed that the Earth Core possessed a much higher defense than its companions, which was to be expected since it lacked any other unique elemental traits. It was a purely defensive unit.

  It was a good fight. I enjoyed watching the progression of their tactics. When I compared it to my own method—butchering them after rushing in before they could even split, then destroying them in a single horizontal slash—this felt like a proper battle. What I do is less of a fight and more like a massacre.

  “Good job, girls. Your teamwork has become very synergic. You have both come a long way,” I said as the girls finished collecting the coins from the ground and approached me. Their eyes were bright and expectant, waiting for my assessment of their performance.

  “Thank you, master!”

  They both beamed at the praise, answering joyfully.

  This skirmish was likely the last one for the day, as we were approaching the final stretch of the floor. After passing through a few more stone intersections, we arrived at the front of the boss room. There was only one group waiting in the hallway outside the doors; actually, to be precise, it was not a group, but a single person preparing to enter.

  There were six people in total in front of the boss room. Five of them were waiting at the side of the corridor, sitting or leaning against the walls, and they were clearly sending the tall man into the room alone. It would have looked like a heartless act if it were any other boss room, but the 15th-floor boss is a bit different from the ones that came before it.

  As we drew closer, the people waiting at the side of the corridor noticed us. They offered a few brief glances and whispered among themselves, but they did not take any action to interact with us. Thankfully, the wait did not last long; the tall man stepped through the doors and entered the room after about a minute.

  When the man entered, the remaining members of his party stood up and headed back down the hallway, most likely intending to use ‘Dungeon Walk’ to reach the upper floor where they would meet their teammate after the fight. We waited for another five minutes before it was finally our turn. The turnover in this particular boss room is unusually fast.

  [Edited]

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