Dugea stood up from her throne and descended the stairs, revealing her child-like appearance to those below. She had long black hair, reaching to her feet, and round black eyes. Paired with her innocent and wide smile and her black dress with ruffles, she looked like a doll.

"Welcome to my personal space! I am Dugea, the master of this dungeon!" she declared with wide-open arms and an uppish attitude.

Ophelia nervously scanned her surroundings. Aside from the torches and the throne, she could not identify anything else in the darkness. Even the ground was pitch-black.

And yet, she could clearly see her students. But four of them were missing.

Harik, Rachel, Sylvia, Lisa and Ophelia noticed that they were in the presence of a demon. But thanks to their experience with previous incidents, they grew accustomed to their appearances and remained calmer than usual.

But Tija and Asak were nervous. Whereas Tija tried to remain firm despite sweat rolling down her cheeks, Asak’s legs could not stop shaking.

And noticing how the others fared against her presence, he turned frustrated about himself and gritted his teeth.

Sylvia and Ophelia were the first ones to jump at her. Sylvia attempted to touch Dugea with her freezing hand, while Ophelia was throwing a punch with her gauntlet.

"?"

But the two sensed how their hands were touching and punching something thick and hard.

"A wall...?" Ophelia muttered.

"That’s right!" Dugea replied cheerfully, peeking from the side of the black wall.

Sylvia slid her hand to Dugea and created simultaneously an ice blade.

"Wha...?!"

However, before she could cut her, the ice blade suddenly disappeared.

"Hehe...!" Dugea laughed with a smug grin.

She raised her hand, which held a small marble.

"!"

When she struck her hand down, Sylvia’s ice blade appeared in her hand.

"Tch...!"

Sylvia dodged the attack just in time but a small scratch was visible on her face.

"What’s that ability...?" Lisa murmured tensely from below.

Walking past Ophelia and Sylvia without a care in the world, Dugea began to answer Lisa’s question.

"Oh~ Are you so curious about me~? Well, it’s no wonder, after all, there isn’t a person who wouldn’t be amazed and curious about me, an A-rank demon!" she stated arrogantly as she wildly and empathically gestured with her hands.

Not tolerating that disrespect, Sylvia created large ice spikes in front of her feet, which were aimed at Dugea, who was still unfazed.

She threw a small marble to the others below and held one marble in front of her.

The ice disappeared again.

"Maybe this will give you an answer." Dugea said with an unwavering smile.

"?!"

The marble at the others’ feet began to glow brightly until the previous attack of Sylvia emerged from that marble, hitting everyone.

They groaned in pain as they were sent flying.

"G-guys!" Sylvia shouted, ridden with guilt and worry.

She rushed to them.

"So you can store everything in those marbles and summon them again, I assume?" Ophelia said sharply.

"That’s correct! You are a smart one, aren’t you?"

Ophelia was already on edge but Dugea’s carefree and child-like attitude annoyed her even more.

"Be it living beings or objects, I can store everything inside those marbles on mine! I’m even so amazing that I can even store entire places inside of them!" she elaborated, showing a V-sign with her hand.

The places the others called floors were in reality places from the outside world, which Dugea stumbled upon and stored inside her marbles. And after having found a good place, she turned said place into a multi-layered place, which was later known as the Unnatural Dungeon. Every floor was connected with each other, however, she was still able to play with the order or how to get to them as was seen with Mika and the others.

She even collected some monsters to act as floor bosses. And for the fifth floor, she even received the cooperation of fellow demons, who provided her with different gimmicks.

All of that was just to kill her boredom. Dugea created the dungeon so that humans would challenge it. And because no one would challenge it if there was nothing to gain, she even went around and collected things, which acted as treasures and rewards for humans.

But after a certain amount of time passed, she slowly grew bored of the dungeon and seeing humans challenge it, however, she was also too lazy to leave the dungeon, thus, she hoped for interesting individuals to come inside the dungeon so that she could face them herself.

"Wait! Then, how did you manage to warp us from floor to floor?" Ophelia asked confused.

"I guess it’s time to reveal it, huh?" Dugea sighed.

"Check out your nape." she added bored.

"?"

Ophelia put her hand inside the back of her collar and noticed a small object there.

"A marble...?!" she muttered surprised after fishing it out from her collar.

"But how...?"

"That’s a secret." Dugea teased her.

In fact, it was too dark inside the dungeon’s entrance that the group did not notice the group of bats, hanging from the ceiling. Those bats were trained by Dugea to sneakily put marbles inside people’s clothes once they entered the cave.

Dugea’s back was wide-open and Ophelia knew that she could not miss such a chance. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"But enough talking for now-"

Ophelia threw a punch at her but Dugea turned her head to Ophelia while she was talking.

"?!"

She grabbed her arm and threw her over her shoulder, which was surprising considering her small body.

"Ack!" Ophelia groaned after falling hard on her back.

The sound of things rattling on the ground echoed in the dark space.

Tensed up, everyone looked up to Dugea.

"..."

With a smile, she entered the field, which was covered with countless marbles.

However, that smile quickly disappeared from her face and was replaced with a grumpy expression.

"What is she doing here?" she said in an annoyed tone.

She did not look at Ophelia and the others. Instead, her gaze was directed at the ceiling.

Meanwhile, on another floor.

Sara and Belian were on the lowest floor of the Unnatural Dungeon.

"Hrngh!!!" Sara groaned in struggle.

The two found themselves directly in front of the floor boss, who was a human-like creature completely wrapped up in bandages.

Belian, however, was previously blown away by the creature’s heavy punch, leaving her alone with it.

The bandages that were around her neck and tightened up more and more.

Sara started to lose her strength and her eyes were about to close as well.

The only thing she saw before she would eventually lose consciousness was the silhouette of another person arriving there.

The light around that person dispersed.

"L-Lily...?" Sara said weakly.

"Sara!"

Lily was stunned and overwhelmed by the situation but she had no time to analyze the whole situation as she had to save her friend first.

"Run..."

But her words did not reach Lily, who instinctively fired off fireballs at the monster.

Each fireball hit it and exploded afterward, however, even though some bandages were on flames, it remained unfazed and kept on tightening the grip around Sara’s neck.

"Jump away, Lily!"

"!"

From behind, Belian appeared again.

Blood flowed down from above on his head as he charged at the monster once more with his relic in his hands. This time, he did not neglect his surroundings and evaded the bandages, which were coming from below and tried to pierce him.

And once he was near enough, he cut the bandages on Sara off with one single slash.

The bandages, whose cut ends were burnt, pulled back as if they were living beings.

Landing on her butt, Sara had to cough loudly and painfully.

"You okay?" Belian asked with his stern gaze focused on their opponent.

"Y-yes, thanks..." she replied still weakly as she slowly got up on her feet.

"I-is that the floor boss...?" Lily asked nervously, breaking into a cold sweat.

"..."

Belian shortly glanced at Lily, who was standing with them.

"Lily."

"Yes...?"

"Try to find a way out of here." he stated.

"H-huh? What about you two?"

"We will stay here and fight it."

"Let me fi-"

"Don’t!" Belian slightly raised his voice.

Lily flinched as it was unusual for him to do that.

"You have certainly grown stronger, Lily. However, as much as it pains me to say it, having you fight with us here will only hold us back." he said after regaining his composure.

Even Sara had to cast her guilty gaze down.

"..."

Lily could only stare blankly and agape at them before she tried to smile.

But she could not smile.

She bit her lips and turned around.

"I will find a way out of this floor so please hold on until then..." she whispered before she dashed away.

The monster raised its hand and pointed towards Lily but Belian and Sara blocked off its view.

"I’m sorry for having you stay here with me."

"No problem, after all, we can only stall time if we work together." she responded with a faint smile.

The two readied their fighting stances as they tried to survive against the floor boss.