Chapter 69 - 68 Searching The Third Layer

With the information on Mrazivý's location in hand Marcus rushed out of the guild building and ran towards the northwest gate.

Upon arriving Marcus quickly exited through the gate and started running at top speed to the entrance of the dungeon and once the guard station that protected the entrance came into view Marcus went back into his ghost form.

Now intangible and invisible Marcus slipped by without any hassle or having to pay the entrance fee and was able to get to the grand entrance of the Ocean Bluff Temple with ease.

Floating into the first chamber of the dungeon where most adventures would finish up final preparations for their dungeon exploration since monster rarely entered the area, Marcus found a quiet corner where no one else could see him and returned to his physical form.

Now that he was safely within the dungeon Marcus took out the map, he was given by Joras and looked it over to find the best route to Mrazivý's location.

Looking through the many routes he found the most direct route followed through a massive set of caverns that were filled with a shallow layer of water and were home to some of the most dangerous creatures on the first level.

'She is about seventeen miles away from here, and while for most people this would be a dangerous and arduous trek through waters that come up to their thighs for me it might as well still be solid ground.'

Shooting off in the direction of the caverns Marcus ran at top speed intent on making it to Mrazivý with as much haste as possible since inside the dungeon every second could be deadly.

Passing through a few corridors and barely slowing down to dispatch monsters that got in his way Marcus moved at incredible pace through the dungeon and soon came to the massive group of caverns he was aiming for.

Now standing on the edge of the water that filled up around the first foot and a half of the dungeon's floor, Marcus poured a small amount of mana into his new boots and tested them out for the first time.

When he put his foot on the water for the first time, he instincts told him that he would sink, but the magic enchantments in his boots of the deep held him above the water allowing him to walk over it.

With the power of his boots proven, Marcus ran atop the water even faster than he would have on dry land.

Running across the water Marcus made better time than most could hope for and simply used his iron sphere or a lightning javelin to blow away any monsters that impeded him and after around two hours he managed to reach the general location above Mrazivý.

'I should be right above her give or take a few hundred feet, so with a bit of searching around I should be able to find her.'

Shutting off his solid soul and turning back into a ghost Marcus used one of his greatest abilities and slipped through the ground. While most people would have to navigate through all three layers of the dungeon to reach Mrazivý's current location, Marcus was able to circumvent them and head straight for the correct location on the third level by coming in from above.

Phasing through the floor Marcus had to be careful to not go to far since the last thing he wanted was to end up at the center of Mirrion again, because he lost his sense of direction.

Knowing exactly how fast he could float Marcus counted each second estimating exactly how far he had gone and once he had descended a thousand feet, he came into another opening on the second layer of the dungeon.

After giving a cursory glance just to make sure he was on the second level, Marcus continued his decent down into the earth.

After floating down for another few minutes Marcus stopped still surrounded by earth on all sides but believing that he had reached the depth he wanted to be at.

'I was hoping I could just come out into another room like with what happened on the second layer, but it looks like my precautions paid off. If I had not been counting my distance I just would have kept going until I reach another opening at who knows how deep.'

Thanking his good sense Marcus started floating in every direction a hundred feet and when he moved towards the south, he once again found himself in an open space.

Noticing that their was a sizeable population of some type of large crabs that were all above level twenty Marcus was certain he had made it to the third level.

'Now all I need to do is search around for her and with a bit of luck I can locate her within a few hours.'

Systematically searching around the area in a circular fashion slowly increasing the circumference of the area he was looking in Marcus was unable to find any trace of Mrazivý, even after having searched over and area with a diameter of half a mile. However, Marcus did not give up and soon while he was passing through a wall, he ran into a barrier that prevented him from entering.

Circling around the area he could not enter Marcus eventually came out to an opening where there was a massive stone door depicting powerful monsters and was flanked on either side by massive statues.

The two statues depicted different monsters, one being a large forty-foot-long serpent that coiled around a pillar while the other was a thirty-foot-tall cyclops holding a massive club.

'Fuck, if this is what I think it is I am incredibly unlucky. From what I read in the book that had details about the Ocean bluff temple, the boss rooms on each level are protected by two guardians and only once they are defeated can one enter and challenge the boss.'

Thinking that there was no way Mrazivý was unlucky enough to be teleported straight into the boss room on the third level, Marcus continued his search but after going for another whole day and covering a massive amount of ground concluded that the only place, she could be in was the boss room.

'This blows, I have looked all over but there is not a single sign of her, even if she had moved from her last recorded location, I should have found at least some traces of her by now. The only option left is for me to check the boss room, but if she ended up in there how would she even survive. While she may be a high level the bosses of each level are far stronger than normal monster at their same level, similar to me. I am not sure I have a chance of winning even if the current boss is as low level as possible. There is a good possibility she is already dead so maybe I should just head back to the surface and cut my losses. But then I would have wasted all this time for nothing and if she is still alive, I might be able to save her.'

Mulling over his options figuring out the pros and cons of leaving or trying to confront the third layer boss Marcus eventually decided to give it a try.

He figured worst case scenario he could probably escape and if he did manage to kill the boss and rescue Mrazivý he would obtain a large quantity of valuable items.

With his mind set he approached the doors leading into the bosses layer and when he was around thirty feet away the stone statues started to come to life as the two guardians prepared to defend the boss room.