Everyone had frozen in fear except three individuals.
Alex, Lavinia, and Dim Dim were unaffected by the intimidation the Boss Monster had unleashed.
Lavinia’s tolerance to the presence of stronger monsters had been improved by her father and grandfather deliberately taking her to dungeons far beyond her level in the past.
As for Alex, he had simply found his battle against the jumping spider in the past so memorable that he had often meditated and ran simulations inside his head, trying to figure out how he could deal with that kind of enemy.
But the jumping spider he had fought in the past wouldn’t hold a candle to the monstrosity before him.
Each of the Boss Monster’s legs was at least three to four meters long.
It was truly a mutated menace that made the dire bear look cute in comparison.
Just as the jumping spider was about to land on its first Catkin victim, a wall of light blocked its path.
A moment later, Ramza’s voice reached everyone’s ears.
"All of you run to the first floor now!" the Patriarch ordered. "I won’t be able to hold it for long!"
When Ramza had noticed the situation escalating, he had looked for the artifact inside the secret room that would allow him to interfere with the domain for a brief period of time and had activated it at the perfect time.
He had cast a barrier that protected the teenagers from the Boss Monster.
However, there was a time limit, and he couldn’t hold off the Boss Monster for a long time.
Ramza wasn’t in the domain in person. Otherwise, he would have already squashed the jumping spider like a bug.
Unfortunately, the only thing he could do now was maintain the barrier protecting the teenagers, giving them time to escape.
"Carry the wounded, and head to the first floor!" Lavinia ordered. "Hurry!"
The young lady didn’t hesitate to help support one of the Catkins, who had been injured in the leg by the feral dogs.
Alex also assisted another Catkin, who seemed to have lost the strength in his legs due to fear.
When all the Catkins had finally escaped to the first floor, Ramza sealed the exit, preventing the Boss Monster from following them.
But this was only meant to delay the inevitable.
The seal would be undone after two days and, when that time came, nothing would stop the Boss Monster from advancing to the first floor to hunt the Catkins.
"Listen up, all of you. Do not ask how I can talk to all of you right now," Ramza said seriously. "All you need to know is I have locked the exit of the second floor, but it will only last for two days."
At first, the Catkins felt relieved that their lord had prevented the monster from following them. But after hearing that this was only temporary, all of them felt despair.
They needed to survive for at least seven more days before being automatically kicked out of the domain.
Although no one said it out loud, they believed that surviving the next few days would be a near-impossible task.
"I know what all of you are thinking and feeling right now, but we have no way to forcefully open the domain and bring all of you out, even if we wanted to. This is a matter of life and death, I want all of you to work together to defeat that mutant.
"That’s the only way you can survive. It’s either you beat it or it beats you. Lavinia, do your best to keep everyone alive."
"Yes, Grandfather," Lavinia replied. "I will do my best."
Ramza sighed. It was unfortunate, but this was the extent of what he could do for the teenagers.
Everyone was uncontrollably down, including Alex.
Then out of nowhere, the young man heard his master’s voice.
"Disciple, I know this is a selfish request, but I want you and my sister to survive," Cairo said. "You already fought a red-eyed zebra jumping spider and lived to tell the tale. If it’s you, I believe you can find a way."
Alex sighed. "I’ll do my best, Master. But I don’t know if the others will want to cooperate with me."
"I will cooperate with you," Lavinia said without hesitation. "Just tell me what to do."
She knew that as long as she helped Alex, the other Catkins would follow suit.
"Very well. We will start our preparation tomorrow," Alex replied. "Everyone is tired, and some are even injured. We should all rest for now to recover our strength.
"Since the terrain of the first floor will change at midnight, we should all stick together to prevent us from getting separated. We also need to assign a night watch because there are still monsters roaming around the first floor.
"We will assign two people to guard for two hours before switching with the others. Dim Dim and I will take the first watch. Lavinia, you take the second."
"Don’t order our Young Miss around!" complained Lioren, who did not want to obey the young man’s order.
"Lioren, now is not the time for bickering," Lavinia stated coldly. "If you don’t want to listen to his orders, you don’t have to. I won’t assign unwilling people to be night watchers after me."
The young lady then chose the least injured among the Catkins and taught them how to use the hourglass she brought out.
"Once all the sand on the upper chamber of this hourglass is down, exactly two hours have passed," Lavinia explained. "We will use this to time everyone’s shifts."
After making sure everyone understood their roles, she handed the hourglass to Alex.
"Let’s all find a safe place to rest for now," Alex suggested. "If any of our people suddenly go missing after the first floor changes its interior, please wake up Lavinia at once."
According to the clock in his status page, there were at least five more hours before midnight.
Lavinia would already be asleep by then, so someone needed to inform her if their people suddenly disappeared without warning.
Sensing their Young Miss might have become annoyed with him, Lioren decided to make up for his wrongs by volunteering for the third watch.
Lavinia agreed and ordered Lioren to wake her up if something unexpected happened during his shift.