Valerian stood before the guards. The people were confused because, although they knew him. They could not let him go ahead. One of the older guards said, "Sir Valerian, we are posted here on the orders from the guild. We cannot allow you to go in. Please understand our difficulty."

Valerian gave them a calm gaze and asked, "What are they paying you?"

The guards were surprised to see that Valerian was bribing them. They could not decide how to deal with it when Valerian took a few gold coins from his pocket and said, "Take this and look for me outside if it is not enough."

The people were bound and did not expect Valerian to think so lowly of them. It was not like they had not taken money for shady stuff, but coming from such a noble personage, the idol of many people. They were ashamed. Finally, the man asked, "Sir, I will let you go. We do not need your money either. But please tell me, do you have the confidence to deal with that thing? Or come back safely, at least?"

Valerian nodded and said, "I have the confidence. Now let me go."

The men looked at each other and moved aside to let Valerian inside. The young man vanished from his spot and rushed through the floor entrance. He did not wish to waste any more time.

The guards discussed with each other and decided to send one of them to inform the people. Valerian did not know any of this.

...

The young man came to the thirty-fifth floor and sensed the aura of death filling the entire floor. Valerian sighed. He did not wish to see such a scene. Regardless of the reasons, the dungeon was alive, and these mutations were destroying this place. Two floors have been lost to these things, and other than that, the place had no magic to be used here. How will the people survive?

He wished to curse the high gods. They were the reasons behind such chaos. Valerian hated these mutations. They reminded him of Tyrant Immortuous. In his eyes, he was also a mutation that sought nothing but destruction and the urge to achieve his goals. This same feeling has kept him going for the past three years. Valerian often thought about what life would be like if he was a normal orphan.

He could not help but think that would have been a better life. He did not desire riches or vanity. He longed for love and peace. His heart was hardly at peace, even if he had enough love. When he was about to kill Tyrant Immortuos, he felt at peace for the first time. At least, that was what he thought.

Valerian thought all this while scurrying around the dungeon floor, looking for the creature. However, he found a bunch of bones and blood clots on the way. Valerian furrowed his brows; the anger in his heart churned.

The young man moved around and found traces of the beast inside the dungeon.

...

While Valerian was looking for the creature, Shiba and the two had come to the dungeon with Prim. Shiba used the bugle, and they all came to the entrance of the thirty-fifth floor, where the guards were discussing whether Valerian would be safe.

Prim stepped forward and showed them the document to enter the floor. The guards abided by the permit and said, "Miss, Sir Valerian entered the floor half an hour ago, yet there has been no movement. Please be careful." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Prim replied, "The floor is a maze. He will be fine, do not worry."

Just as she finished talking, a roar sounded from the entrance. Shiba moved, and the two followed behind her. Viney said, "Miss Prim, you should wait here. The situation inside is not something we know anything of."

Prim wanted to retort, but the team vanished at the end of the stairs, and she could not run behind to follow them. The lady nodded and said, "May god help you all."

...

Shiba determined the direction of the roar, and the team rushed through the dark maze. After twenty minutes, when they arrived, they found Valerian standing before the beast face to face.

Captain wanted to rush forward when Valerian said, "Stay back. This guy is mine."

Captain was surprised, and Shiba said, "This is not the time to be willful."

Valerian flicked a flying knife at her feet and said, "I swear to god, I will kill you if you step forward. This is my fight and my fight alone."

His exertion made Shiba shiver. She could feel the rage he was holding in his heart. The Chimera roared at Valerian. However, the young man did not faze and flicked a pair of flying knives at the beast.

Valerian did not aim to attack the Chimera but the corpses behind it. Yes, the parties that have been sent in had women members. Just like Miril, these women were also selected to host the eggs.

Valerian could even see that a few eggs had a moving embryos. Earlier, he was inspecting the condition of the two women when the creature sensed his presence and came charging at him. To save his life, he could only create a distance between himself and the beast.

The Chimera smacked the flying knives with his tail and rushed forward to attack Valerian with its claws.

The young man was not fazed and raised a small shield. The bear claw hit him, followed by the wind pressure. Valerian had learned his lesson from the past. He leaned forward and held his sword horizontally parallel to the ground. As the wind hit the blade’s tip, it dispersed around Valerian.

The push did not come, and the young man charged forth. His speed was so fast that the floor beneath his feet shattered. He appeared closer to the Chimera, the creature was smart, too, and moved forward to bite Valerian’s head, but the latter did not stop at the same point.

He jumped up and evaded the overhead chomp. He did not jump back but moved under the belly of the creature. His sword flashed, and he dug into the scales. The scales must be hard, but they were no dragon scales. They were like layers; every layer had a gap as thin as hair. Valerian exposed that gap and injured the beast severely.

The Chimera roared and stomped on the horse’s hooves, and the creature vanished. It was not going to stand and tolerate the attacks. Valerian stood up from the ground and turned to attack behind him. He sensed the sinister gaze lingering on his back.

Valerian sidestepped as he slashed his sword. The Chimera was hit in the face, but the sudden attack did not leave any significant damage. The young man did not wait, and he grabbed the knife from his waist and stabbed the Chimera in the eye.

The attack surprised the Chimera, and it failed to defend itself completely. The left eye was done for, and the creature went mad in pain as it roared. The snake’s tail transformed into a whip that lay waste to everything in its path.

Valerian knew he should not push the injured creature into a corner and retreated a couple of meters to avoid the lashing tail. He waited patiently. The creature will get used to the pain. However, he was wrong in predicting this. The Chimera had the intelligence of a human, and the emotional quotient was quite high as well.

It used the eyes on its tail to locate Valerian and used the tiger claw to attack him. That was not all the tail shot bone spike darts at Valerian with great accuracy.

The young man did not hesitate and held the short shield to defend against the darts while the tiger claw came at him. Valerian did not know what surprise this would hold. To be safer, he prepared his shield to withstand the attack.

He sensed the claws digging into his shield, and the hook-like nail structure dragged him along. Valerian thought quickly and left the shield to be taken away by the creature.

Valerian did not give the creature a chance to back at him. On his back, a small ax was stuck. Valerian took the ax off and flung it at the snake’s tail. The tail moved to counter the attack head-on, and Valerian flicked a flying knife right in the mouth of the creature.

He did not wait and rolled under the belly of the creature. Then he held the hilt and twisted the sword inside. This destroyed a lot of the creature’s organs. The creature wailed, and gradually the movements slowed down and it stumbled even to stand.

Soon, with a loud thump, it fell to the ground. The young man stretched his body as it issued crackling sounds. The creature was not dead yet. Valerian realized that the source of life was not located inside the body.

Valerian turned his head to search around and found one egg inside the victim glowing.