LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 1496
Three of the women were pulled into the depths by the time they realized something was happening. However, realizing what was happening did spare them from the mermaid’s wrath. A normal 5th level would have a miniboss, but it’d also be filled with various mobs too. Even after everything, I didn’t have the mana to afford anything else, so every selection I used for the dungeon I made the count.
Eventually, the leader thought to create a protective circle with the girls and face the mermaid head-on. The battle was brutal, but eventually, they were able to get a good hit on the mermaid, and it had no choice but to escape. There were only three of the original group surviving. Just as they decided to continue their way on, a new group approached the water level. At this point, a total of four groups had entered. It was a hundred women, each progressively stronger than the last. The most recent group included several of the lionesses, although I didn’t know if they were numbered, and I didn’t see First or Second.
I was just about to send someone up with a potion to restore the mermaid and try to repeat the slaughter with the next group. I had ordered it not to fight to the death, but to do as much damage as it could. In that respect, it had done a particularly good job. At least, that was my plan until the woman who seemed to be leading this group let out a dismissive snort. She threw something into the water.
The object seemed to open into a portal, and the water in the dungeon started to flow into it. It started slowly, but it grew faster and faster. The water wasn’t going in like a waterfall. It appeared as if it was being sucked into the portal, the water visible declining. I was hoping there was some kind of limit, but the water only seemed to be sucked in faster and faster. I could only watch as the mermaid started to fight against the current. However, as the water declined and the current increased, it was overtaken.
The mermaid seemed to fall into the portal, and then there was nothing. It was dead. Whatever that device was, it opened a vacuum into seeming nothingness, and anything that entered it also became nothing. That was when I noticed that the girls who had been very near the exit and thus less affected by the initial current were also now caught into it.
“Look, there’s are caught too!” Miki exclaimed.
The three women should have been on the same side as the others who were desperately holding onto a stake they had placed into the ground. One of them finally couldn’t hold on anymore, and they were sucked into the whirlpool of death. One by one, the remaining ones were killed just like the first. Another few minutes, and the entire level was now only a foot or so of water, and completely harmless. The woman recovered the device, putting it back on her belt.
“I think some of ours were in that water.” One of the women told the leader.
She snorted. “Then they should have saved themselves. Our lord has no room for failures. If you wish to rise in his favor, you also must be ruthless.”
The other girls nodded as if such a thing was obvious. As for the boss room where the lot of us waited, there was only silence.