"...That place makes me feel really uncomfortable."
Sylvia instinctively hugged her arms, her fingertips turning slightly white. Her pink eyes were filled with intense unease and aversion.
"It feels like something terrifying is sleeping inside... No, that's not it. The ruins themselves feel... completely wrong."
Victoria, who had already reached LV26, was also staring fixedly at the distant Shattered Temple, which looked like a nightmare made real. She could clearly sense its malice even from so far away.
Although she felt some fear, the fighting spirit that came with being a Hero was stronger.
"Could that be... where the Second Floor's lord lives? It really does look... different. I'm already getting a little... impatient to take it on!"
Greg immediately threw cold water on her enthusiasm.
"Don't get too confident, little gray-hair."
Greg was also gazing at the Shattered Temple, but there was no fear in his eyes.
"Going there now would be nothing but pointless suicide."
He paused, then explained:
"The Second Floor's lord boss isn't a giant Monster like the Eight-Legged Lady, but it's probably even more troublesome."
The Second Floor's lord boss: the Throat of Longing.
Even now, recalling his battle with the Throat of Longing in the original game gave Greg a headache.
He hadn't consulted a guide back then, and had beaten it once through sheer superiority in levels and equipment.
But the thought of fighting that thing again still felt like an enormous hassle.
It possessed a particularly troublesome instant-death skill. The moment it let out a certain roar, if you lacked sufficient resistance of the right kind or hadn't interrupted its casting beforehand... every target within range would be torn to pieces.
This was also why many players gave up on clearing the Dungeon altogether. Even if they came here wearing high-level equipment