When the morning of Day 3 in the Infernal Dimension arrived, the group of six set out immediately for the Volcano Dungeon Crim had mentioned the day before.
They had assumed the trip would take only a few minutes, but it turned out to be far more difficult than expected.
The cause wasn't the Level 700+ monsters attacking them, nor the group of cultivators not-so-secretly trailing them from a distance.
It was something much simpler.
Heat.
Unbearably high heat.
They had expected high temperatures since they were traversing a mountain range full of volcanoes, but this went far beyond any expectations.
Evan, the flame user of the group and the one with the highest heat resistance thanks to Mesarthim, found it so stifling that he had to activate Harbinger of Ice just to cool himself down.
That alone said everything about how extreme the conditions were, if even Evan was affected.
Beatrix immediately noticed the cool air radiating from him that contrasted with the oppressive heat around them, and without even a second's hesitation, she latched onto him, treating him like a mobile air conditioner, completely unbothered by how much of her body was pressed against his.
Crim, who was the weakest to heat among them, also noticed the cool air surrounding Evan and wasted no time in clinging to him as well.
"You guys are making it hard to walk…" Evan muttered as he stumbled over Beatrix's foot, but the two girls clearly preferred that inconvenience over enduring the scorching heat.
As for Artemisia, she was perfectly fine, using her ice elemental powers to regulate her own temperature, while Hibiki quietly stayed close to Arthur, who used his gravity manipulation to literally bend the heat waves away.
Their target volcano was roughly 33 kilometres away from where they'd found Crim. Its base spanned five kilometres in diameter, and the volcano itself rose to a moderate 3,000 meters. Rather than a sharp cone, it resembled a dome with a flat summit.
Surrounding it was a raging storm of sulphuric gas, harsh winds, and swirling sand, so thick it looked like a massive yellow wall.
But that wasn't the only obstacle. As mentioned earlier, Level 700+ monsters lurked within the storm, and for an ordinary group, the combination of toxic fumes, poor visibility, and powerful enemies would make survival nearly impossible.
But this group? They were anything but ordinary.
Their line-up included a Semi-Transcendent Sub-Cosmic Progenitor, a Time-Traveling Rogue Hero, two High Goddesses with dominion over Space-Time and Evolution, an Elder Breed Vampire, and a Greater Succubus.
As they pushed further into the storm, the monsters began to retreat, fleeing in fear for their lives.
Ironically, Arthur, despite being the group's strongest, hadn't done anything beyond bending away the noxious gases and blistering heat, as the others were simply too powerful for Legendries, reducing any threat the monsters might've posed to background noise.
Each one benefited from the increased EXP, so by the time they reached the heart of the storm, they had each levelled up several times.
Surprisingly, the canter was calm.
With the wind no longer whipping sand through the air, they had a clear view of the ash-coloured sky above.
They'd reached the eye of the storm—and the foot of the volcano.
"So, what are we gonna do about those ones who've been following us?" Artemisia asked, casting a sidelong glance at the swirling storm behind them.
"Leave them. If they try anything fishy, they wouldn't even know how they died," Arthur replied, having already scanned their trailers and determined they posed no threat.
Arthur returned his gaze to the volcano summit, where the dungeon entrance awaited. To reach it, they had to scale the dark red rock, which hissed and spat steam as vapours rose intermittently from cracks and fissures.
The heat grew even more intense as they climbed, so much so that even Evan, despite using his Harbinger of Ice skill, began burning through energy faster than he could regenerate it just to keep himself and the two girls beside him cool.
Fortunately, they encountered no monsters on the mountainside.
To help the group conserve strength, Arthur expanded his gravity bubble to encompass everyone. With a dungeon waiting for them ahead, conserving energy was essential.
As for Arthur, his gravity powers were significantly amplified in this environment, allowing him to expend very little energy.
As previously mentioned, the ambient energies here were naturally negatively polarized, so while positive energies suffered, negative ones thrived. Arthur's mutated Gravity Pseudo-Authority was a prime example of the latter.
Within minutes, they reached the summit and were met with a disorganized mess of boulders scattered in all directions, forming what resembled a natural rock maze.
The mix of jagged, glossy boulders and smooth, polished ones made the summit resemble a geological exhibit in a science museum.
Among the scattered stones, one boulder stood out more than the rest. It had been carved into the shape of an arch, towering at least ten meters high.
Approaching it, Arthur spotted a staircase heading deeper into the volcano right beneath the arch.
"Guess that's the entrance."
"Yep. Let's go in already," Evan replied, stepping forward.
But just as he was about to enter the dungeon, he paused and turned, sensing something. Artemisia picked up on it too and let out a quiet sigh.
"We should have dealt with them since."
Before anyone could reply, streaks of light shot up from the mountainside and landed on the summit, stirring a small cloud of dust.
When it cleared, a dozen robed figures stood revealed, each wearing the emblem of the Denerth Sect, positioned as though they'd been waiting for this moment all along.
"Stop right there!" one of them barked.
'Uh oh. Cliché alert! Incoming Cliché!'
Such a silly thought crossed through Evan's mind as he glanced at the group, and, fittingly, what followed unfolded exactly as he expected.
The newcomers strutted forward with exaggerated confidence, heads held high, clearly looking down on the party of 'Legendries' before them.
At the front was a tall disciple with a smug look plastered across his face. He stepped out ahead of the others and spoke, his tone dripping with condescension.
"This dungeon now belongs to the Denerth Sect. We've claimed it first, so you'd best leave now before things get… unpleasant. We'll go in first and take whatever rewards are inside. Naturally, you'll be allowed to scavenge for the scraps afterwards."
"…"
The group stared silently at the Denerth Sect disciples, genuinely stunned by their audacity on display. One by one, they exchanged glances, wordlessly confirming each other's disbelief, before turning back to the disciples in perfect synchrony.
Arthur was the first to break the silence, his brows furrowed.
"Are you guys dumb or something? Why the fuck would we do that?"
Evan chuckled under his breath, while Artemisia simply shook her head, visibly annoyed by their very existence.
The Denerth Sect disciples, on the other hand, reacted poorly to Arthur's question, their leader stepping forward with exaggerated bravado, shouting about their sect's supremacy and demanding the group leave.
But even with their arrogance and the Denerth Sect's prestigious reputation, Crim wasn't impressed. Revealing herself as a core disciple of the Blood Moon Sect and direct disciple of a Great Elder, she dismissed their threats and warned them to back off.
The disciples, however, remained defiant, claiming superiority and dismissing her status, arguing that only strength mattered here. Arthur and Evan found the hypocrisy laughable, given these same disciples had been tailing them from the shadows, avoiding any actual combat.
As tensions rose, Crim and Hibiki called out their cowardice and audacity, exposing how the disciples had contributed nothing yet expected to claim the dungeon rewards.
Hibiki's sarcasm only further provoked them, and when one insulted them again, Crim scoffed at their ignorance, noting most were just outer disciples, barely worth the attention.
The Denerth leader attempted to assert dominance by flaring his aura at the level of an Inferior Sovereign, but no one in the group was fazed.
Crim and Hibiki together could match that level, Evan could defeat one solo, and Arthur, a Semi-Transcendent, was beyond any Sovereign in existence.
Hibiki even yawned in response to the display, unimpressed, while Arthur and Evan treated the situation like a spectacle, pulling out popcorn and drinks.
When one of the disciples sneered and said that they must be weakened from all the battles on the way and didn't have the strength to fight back, Crim scoffed, saying that even if she were starved of blood, she still wouldn't lose to idiots like them.
That final insult pushed the disciples over the edge, and they drew their weapons as their auras erupted, intending to use their greater numbers and aggression to intimidate the group.
One of the disciples, seething with rage, screamed the words a certain duo had been eagerly waiting for.
"Courting death!"
And in that instant, the tense atmosphere shattered, not due to the threat of battle, but because of the sudden, explosive laughter that erupted from Evan and Arthur.
Their uncontrollable, full-throated laughter caught everyone off guard, leaving both their own group and the Denerth disciples stunned.
"Bahahahaha!"
Arthur doubled over, clutching his stomach as tears streamed down his face, collapsing to his knees, completely overtaken by laughter. Evan ran his hands through his hair, just as breathless, his voice shaking between wheezing chuckles.
"HAHAHA! He said it! He actually said the thing!"
Evan could barely stay upright, nearly collapsing while laughing.
"HAHAHA! Oh man, I thought the Author would skip that one! But nope, he said it!"
Tears welled in his eyes as he dropped to his knees, his laughter getting louder by the second.
"Hahahaha! Courting death! I can't—HAHAHA!"
Arthur, already on the ground, laughed even harder.
"Of course, he did! There's no way we can have a cultivation arc without that line!"
Their absurd words left everyone in stunned silence. The Denerth disciples and the rest of their group stared in disbelief, unable to make sense of what the two were going on about.
Weapons raised, the disciples stood frozen, their faces blank with confusion as the two continued howling with laughter like they'd heard the best joke in the universe.
"What…are they doing?" one of the Denerth disciples finally muttered, lowering his sword slightly, utterly baffled.
Crim, who had been ready to leap into battle, now stood frozen in disbelief. She glanced at Hibiki, who simply shook her head with a small, amused smile.
As Arthur and Evan continued gasping for air between fits of laughter, Beatrix glanced at the two, then nonchalantly stepped back. Raising her hands in mock surrender, she spoke.
"I don't know these guys. Feel free to attack them. They're the ones laughing at you."
She shrugged while speaking, unhesitatingly throwing Arthur and Evan under the bus. But the pair were still doubled over in laughter, entirely unaware of her words.
The Denerth Sect disciples, already seething from the mockery, ignited their auras with fury.