As the whole group continued to descend down the stairs, John felt a familiar vibe which he was sure he had forgotten.

Yes, there was no way he could forget, the change in the moisture in the air and the amount of water in the steps

"God... I hate this part.

" John muttered as they were about to reach the bottom

Ariel also seemed to have notice what the 2nd floor was going to be and looked a bit troubled, but she let out a sigh in regards to this and gripped her staff.

Ariel's staff wasn't the same as the one of the past, she changed it half a year ago, or rather, she the changed the magic stone to upgrade it.

John suggested that it would be better to change the whole thing, but she was insistent on keeping by claiming that it was precious to her.

Eventually John gave up and just upgraded it, but he never got to know why it was that precious.

Serena's Staff was also upgraded rather than changed saying that it was precious, when John saw this, he assumed that magician's staff were probably precious due to all of the adventures they've survived with it.

But in the end, John never got to hear the true reason out of either Serena or Ariel's Mouth and he also didn't change his gloves.

As the group reached the 2nd floor, the amount of sorrow on John's face was completely visible to everyone else

"Alright, another water floor

" John muttered as he let out a sigh

They were standing on an edge after reaching the bottom of the stairs, and in front of the edge were large pillars with surfaces on them.

Underneath the pillars were was water, and under that was...

John. Zestari called out

You don't have to tell me

"Silentium

" John muttered after fake chanting

Everyone looked a little confused by John's recent action

"Eh, didn't the boy just cast a spell?

"

"I Wonder what it was for

"

"John, what spell did you cast just now?

" Azure asked as he walked up towards the edge where john stood

"Hm, look down there.

"

Those who weren't at the edge walked over and along with Azure, everyone looked down. Under the pillars there was water and if you looked closer, you could see the monsters which were down there Fallen mermaids.

Hm... could these mermaids have something to do with the event outside?

It's unusual but not entirely impossible, that being said, they'd have a time limit if they were to leave the Dungeon which created them.

So it's possible...

"There are fallen mermaids, Quick! Everyone use the noise-cancelling ear plugs

" Said the lady

Noise cancelling ear plugs? Ah... So that's how some adventurers avoided getting caught in the hypnotic sound attack

If they tried to raise a wall like john did, then the sound could just go around or over it and they'd still hear it. Sound works by vibrating the particles in the air after all. It some cases it can pass through or around walls.

But why would some people have the noise-cancelling ear plugs on stand-by at a beach? I doubt the adventurers that helped me were evil people that could have planned the attack... Could there be more to this than I thought?

You might be on to something, but many adventurers bring those ear plugs to the beaches for all sort of reasons. Relaxing is one of them.

Hm...

Once everyone had put in the air plugs john decided to tell everyone something just in case

"Ah, by the way, I forgot to mention this earlier, but within all these pillars, some of them are unstable, you could end up falling to your death.

"

However, there was no reply, everyone had started to communicate by gestures amongst their party members

"We don't have any noise cancelling ear plugs, so we'll have to go together

" John suggested to his party

"Wasn't that the plan from the beginning? More importantly, you're not babysitting them, they should know that some paths are irregular. The fact that they even brought ear plugs in the first place, shows us that they've been to this floor.

" Said Serena

"She's right john, you don't have to feel responsible for them, and Ms Sylvia, since you've been here before, do you know the right path or does it reset?

" Ariel asked

"It resets.

"

"I-I see... I can use my wind searching spell to see one which is most likely to fall or whichever one looks unstable. What about you john?

"

"I can use deprehendre to see the right path, if you look carefully, all the paths look unstable, however, some have more mana imbued in them than others to reinforce them. In other words, If we jump on to the reinforced path, we should be fine.

"

Once john finished both Serena and Ariel gave him an amazed look which quickly changed into a sad look of defeat from both.

"That's not fair...

"Ariel muttered

"Stop cheating...

" Added Serena

"Haha, alright, but we should probably get going, Azure's party seemed to have already planned something.

"

Ayda had started to chant something and it looked like she didn't have her ear plugs on. Azure also took his ear plugs off before saying.

"See you at the finish line.

"

"Saint-Class Wind Magic: Griffins emulation.

" Ayda muttered

Suddenly, Large gusts of wind began to gather in front of their party which stood at the edge, before taking the form of a big griffin twice the normal size.

When azure saw this, he put his ear plug back on and waved at john before jumping on to the griffin.

Everyone watched as the whole party jumped on to the griffin and mounted on it. When it was Ayda's turn to jump, she nearly fell off, but the purple lady which was in front of her, managed to grab her in time

Since everyone had ear plugs on, they couldn't talk to each other, but I'm sure they knew that they all had a common goal

To make it there first, but at the same time, no one was aimlessly charging in because they didn't want to become mermaid food.

Once everyone was mounted, The griffin began to flap it's wings sending gusts of wind everywhere, before heading straight to the door which led to the boss room.

"If it's a race you want.... Then it's one you'll get.

" John muttered with a grin