"Don’t hit the chest plates!" Dennis shouted, his brain working furiously as he noticed the densest part of the creatures. "Minh, go for the knee joints! Diya, be alert, the second one is picking up speed!"

The three had to actually become serious now. The clay golems didn’t bleed, and their heavy stone fists carried enough physical force to break bones if any of them took a direct hit.

Minh Quan took the brunt of the pressure, his teeth clenched as he actively fought against the heavy strikes of the golems. Twice, Diya had to move close to Minh — close enough that body contact was made for several seconds — and urge her pale green healing essence into his forearms to revitalize his weary muscles.

They were able to eventually clear the floor, but their breathing had now become heavy, their foreheads coated in sweat.

Then they moved to Floor 4.

The moment they stepped onto the fourth floor, the System didn’t give them any time to rest. The cavern was even more massive, and from the tunnels ahead, Level 3 and Level 4 Earth Golems began pouring out of the darkness seemingly endlessly.

"Head to that bottleneck and hold the position!" Dennis barked, his voice losing its usual calm cadence as he pointed toward a narrow ridge where the tunnel collapsed slightly. "We can’t let them surround us! Minh, with me! Diya, rotate behind us every three strikes!"

Uhtred stood far back near the entrance of the chamber, his cold eyes completely fixed on the spectacle. This was exactly what he wanted to see.

The sheer number of the beasts was massive, forcing the three to push their classes to the absolute limit. This was where their full teamwork finally came to light, playing perfectly to each of their unique strengths.

Dennis was the anchor of their entire attack. Even as three golems charged simultaneously, his Insight Adept class allowed him to call out the exact angles of their attacks before they even swung.

He stood side-by-side with Minh, using his basic sword to parry the lighter strikes while directing the heavier strikes Minh Quan’s way.

Minh Quan was the main sword. Despite his Uncommon grade talent, the old soldier used the environment to his absolute advantage, utilizing the narrow walls to lock the golems into positions where they couldn’t swing their massive arms fully.

And Diya was the glue holding the entire team together. She had fallen into a perfect, fluid rotation. Any time Minh Quan’s guard slipped and an attack got him, Diya was already there, her hand pressing into his back, her healing magic revitalizing him mid-combat.

They fought like a machine, whittling down the endless waves in a battle of attrition.

Uhtred watched the battle conclude after nearly thirty minutes of non-stop fighting. He analyzed their states, nodding quietly to himself.

Floor 4 is their limit for true grinding. But Floor 5 will likely be their absolute limit. They shouldn’t be able to push further than that...

When they finally stepped onto Floor 5, the difficulty spiked exactly as Uhtred predicted.

The beasts here were Level 5 Stone-Hide Hounds. Fast, heavy predators with skin like granite. The trio was instantly, seriously struggling.

Minh Quan was barely keeping up, his stamina severely depleted from the previous floor. Yet, because of the sheer level of teamwork they had forged on the previous floor, they were still keeping the beasts in check.

They chose not to push blindly into the cavern. Instead, under Dennis’s rapid orders, they let the hounds come to them, securing a small, defensive rocky alcove that restricted the beasts’ speed. The clearing process became a slow, systematic battle of survival.

Minh Quan took multiple deep gashes across his thighs and chest, his blood staining the dry stone floor, but their formation did not crumble.

Every time a hound leaped, Dennis intercepted, and Diya’s green light washed over Minh, pulling him back from the brink of collapse just in time for him to deliver a fatal plunge into the hound’s throat.

Dennis himself was also panting, his knuckles white around the hilt of his sword as he engaged in direct combat to hold the line.

Uhtred chose this moment to step forward.

"You guys can hold this area. Your rotation is solid, and the experience here is exactly what you need to push yourselves to your limits. I’m heading down."

Dennis nodded, wiping sweat from his eyes, while Diya simply let out a weary, breathless "Okay." They knew they would only be a hindrance if they followed him any further... if they could even follow him, that is.

Without another word, Uhtred turned and walked straight past the remaining hounds at the edge of the chamber.

A few of the stone-hide beasts snarled, attempting to launch themselves at his back, but Uhtred didn’t even turn his head. He simply released a fraction of his Level 17 aura.

The raw, heavy pressure slammed into the hounds’ minds, causing them to whimper and freeze in place, their primal instincts screaming at them to let the monster pass.

Uhtred stepped through the portal to Floor 6 and began to run.

From Floor 6 to Floor 10, he speedran the entire section cleanly. His star-metal battle-axe didn’t even leave his shoulder for the most part.

With his Strength at 67 and Agility at 70, he was a literal grim reaper of death. The Level 6 and 7 earth beasts were smashed into gray blobs with simple, casual kicks or heavy backhanded swatting blows.

He only slowed down occasionally out of pure curiosity, observing how some of the mid-tier beasts utilized cosmic earth essence to temporarily calcify their limbs before he shattered them anyway.

Floor 10 and Floor 11 took a bit more of his time.

The creatures here were reaching Level 11, matching the current level of King Alexei, the second-ranked individual on the planet. Their rock armor was dense enough that Uhtred actually had to swing his axe, the heavy blade cutting through their stone bodies with loud, echoing cracks.

Progressively, the depth of the dungeon began to show its true scale. By the time he stepped onto Floor 15, the sheer number of Level 15 elite creatures made him stop his casual streamrolling pace.

The cavern was crawling with "Armored Earth Drakes" — massive, low-crawling reptilian beasts whose scales were literally formed from hardened iron ore.

Their tails swung with the force of battering rams, and they could even use Earth magic to make the stone floor ripple and shake to throw off his footing.

"Alright," Uhtred muttered, a cold, eager smile finally playing on his lips as his knuckles tightened around his axe. "Let’s get serious."

He blurred forward, his primordial grade core circulating his cosmic essence at maximum velocity. The deep caverns echoed with the brutal, repetitive sounds of metal shearing through rock as he began to methodically butcher his way through the horde.

The grind was no longer instantaneous; it was taking time, each floor requiring careful footwork and heavy physical expenditure as he forced his way down through Floors 16 and 17.

By the time he finally broke through to Floor 18, Uhtred was entirely drenched in a mixture of gray beast gore and his own sweat.

His mind was completely locked into the zone of slaughter, his analytical thoughts focusing solely on the efficiency of his strikes and the optimization of his cosmic essence circulation.

In fact, he had been so entirely absorbed in the monotony of the high-level grind that he had forgotten entirely about Diya, Minh Quan, and Dennis.

He paused in the dim tunnel, looking at the portal leading to Floor 19, his breathing steadying as a sudden wave of guilt hit him. He looked back up the sloping path behind him.

Should I go up and check on them? He thought, his brows furrowing.

He closed his eyes, attempting to extend his perception upward, but the dense, heavy earth essence of the deep dungeon acted like a natural jamming field. There was absolutely no way he could sense them from this depth.

Eh, it was worth a try...

He stood there for a few seconds, debating whether he should actually go up or not, before he shook his head and dismissed the thought.

Nah. They’ll be fine. He trusted them.

Dennis had the brain to know when to retreat, Minh Quan had the iron nerves to execute any survival plan, and most importantly, Diya was there with her Epic-grade healing class.

Even if things went entirely awry, her cosmic essence pool was deep enough to keep them alive to at least retreat.

Besides, Uhtred didn’t want any of the floor progress he had fought so hard for to reset or alter if he backtracked now. His main intent had shifted. He wanted to clear the entire twenty-floor dungeon in one single, continuous go.

He pulled up his interface, scanning his notification log. So far, the System had remained completely silent. No flashy notifications or titles had popped up yet despite how many beasts he had slain.

By now, he expected some sort of solo-clear record or even a group-clear record at least. But seeing as nothing was there, Uhtred knew the titles were undoubtedly brewing in the background, waiting for the final clear of the dungeon.

Now he was going all the way. He had even begun to consider the time factor in how long it was taking to clear each floor. Perhaps that would be a factor in whatever title the System would give him afterwards.

So without wasting time, Uhtred pushed forward, entering right into Floor 19.

[You have entered the Obsidian Caverns - Floor 19]