“The cost to the second army was great, but a forward base was established on the surface of the planet named Epsilon Centauri 1,

Unlike the previous world, which was taken from the so-called deities, this world was the construction of technology, technology we one day hoped to utilize on Earth.

Meanwhile, the second fleet fought a desperate battle to keep space around Epsilon Centauri 1 free of monsters.

The battle on the ground was fierce, the fiercest since the beginning of the war.

Unlike previous liberations, where humans were enslaved by the tyrants and were placed in labor camps or the tyrant's personal prison. The tyrant sent humanity's own to meet us in battle with its other creatures.

It quickly became one of the most brutal liberations for humanity. The limitations we put on ourselves to not hurt our enslaved brothers and sisters made it costly beyond belief.

In the end, we prevailed. When the demon`s head was finally separated from its body, the liberated cried as much in gratitude as they did in regret over actions they had no control over.

To our surprise, the insectoids fighting against us did not go into a frenzy or self-destruct like the devil's forces normally did when the self-proclaimed god was slain. Instead, contact was made with an organism named The Hive Queen, who pleaded leniency on her children's behalf as they were as enslaved as humanity's own children had been.

Humans had reached far alone, but now we had made friends and possibly allies.”

- Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.

As I drenched myself in water, a surge of pride filled my heart. Mira was diligently collecting rat tails. I couldn't help but smile. 'She's becoming a true loot hamster,' I thought, my heart warming like a father witnessing his toddler ordering the execution of a peasant for the first time.

Looking at the carnage of what I imagined made up most of ratopia at this level; we were ready to move down to the next level.

Sadly, my attempt at gliding over the rats had failed spectacularly as the dead rats didn't create enough friction for me to bowl over them in a single direction. With my stomping and body slamming, followed by Mira skewing any rats she could on with my sword, it was a surprisingly easy battle, almost disappointingly so, but I had to remind myself that this was just the first level of the dungeon.

More importantly, we had already found some loot, and I had no idea how no one else had picked up on the fake wall. I didn't even know if everyone ran through the same level one.

There were too many unknowns about the anomalies that were dungeons in general, but I did know they played an integral part in the kingdom's economy. The numbers just didn't add up otherwise, with sprawling cities in the millions and towns relying on the loot from dungeons to both feed and provide the resources to keep society functioning.

I am almost positive that if I really looked at the numbers, the amount of value brought up from the dungeons far exceeded the coins in circulation, or none of this would have worked. Somewhere along the line there was a money sink, and I expected the guild to be the culprit.

The price of Hunter's gear far exceeded what regular people paid for their necessities. Not to mention the insane prices that started appearing when you Awakened, and while the Hunters Guild had the most Awakened across all the lands, the amount of Awakened not affiliated with the guild in a single kingdom was much higher than I think most were aware of.

Handing me a bushel of rat tails and my sword, Mira said. “Should be another fourteen copper. Just glad this is the only ratling level, according to the book. The little shits stink up the place almost as much as you.”

Who can complain about extra coins? Dumping them in with the rest, I put my sword away and made ready to leave.

“Yeah, yeah. You're one to talk. If we don't get you scrubbed down, I think we can forget about being stealthy any time soon. The entire level will just have to take a good sniff and know exactly where the bait is… I mean, my valued team member is”

“Screw you too. Let's go, I'm already tired, and we can't rest until level ten,”.

With a chuckle, I walked through the portal leading to the next level.

The air screamed with the rebound of a sword hitting the barrier by my right shoulder. Almost without thinking, I had my shield swung in place to take on the stab that followed, kicking straight forward. I was rewarded with a grunt in pain as the attacker tumbled back further than he should have if I weren't an Awakened.

Drawing my sword, I took a step closer to see what I was dealing with. Behind me, I could hear Mira bombard me with questions as she had just entered through the portal.

Looking down at a middle-aged man clad in rags and wielding a shortsword. I didn't spot a Hunter medallion, but that didn't mean much. Mine was on a string under my once cream-white shirt.

“I don't know. I just got the shield in place and managed to push him off before he could strike me again.”

“He attacked you?! Did he hurt you?”

“Yeah, but I got my shield up in time.”

I chose not to mention the first strike. I had yet to decide if I should let Mira know about me being one of the Awakened. On one hand, the likelihood of her finding out anyway was high as long as we kept seeking danger. On the other hand, I found the notion of keeping it secret from her now that we had a contract funny. She was gonna be so pissed.

“So, any last words?”

I asked the man, curious as to why he had decided I looked better as a pincushion. Never mind that I'm almost positive he wasn't the only one wishing to make me into one, going by my pre-death memories, but I didn't know his particular motivation.

Looking at me with almost as much anger as Mira regularly pulled off, he answered through parched lips.

“He said you would be here, harbinger of nothing. I waited and waited, and finally, you came. He said you would be weak, weak as a child. Still, I failed. You may end me but know we are many, and we will never bow down to the evil you bring. The great ones know you walk on this plane now. They do not want your meddling in this circle, Bringer of Darkness. Leave or be brought low. We are many. We will never submit.”

“Crazy person says what?”

“... You supposed to say, what?”

“What?”

“Yeah, that's the spirit. Why don't we try again? I mean, I'm not averse to killing you. Leaving enemies alive, behind your back, is a quick way to get sent on a permanent vacation, and I'm just not ready for that yet. Things to do, people to annoy, heights to avoid. You know how it is.”

“Go back to where you belong, prince of nothing. I denounce you!”

When he finished saying that, I felt a pulse of power from inside him originating from the same place where I had my useless sparrow egg, except that his power was immense, and it kept building.

Without thinking, I turned and picked up Mira in my arms and hurled us both into the first-level portal. Reflected on the portal surface, I saw a wall of white coming towards us before we came out of the portal on level one again.

“What the fuck was that, you cross eyes crow!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Mira demanded, hammering my chest with clenched fists. She was probably causing herself more harm than me, considering my barrier didn't register her assault as me taking damage.

“Easy there, piglet. I get that you don't like getting rescued by me, but some tiny form of gratitude for rescuing your bacon, not once but twice, would be appreciated.”

I said while setting her down.

“You still haven't told me why the ogre diddling fuck you decided to jump back here or who that man was.”

“No idea who he was. Probably some madman who's been lost in the dungeons, or has he seen his team wiped or something? He wasn't making much more sense than you normally do, so I have no idea. As to why we left, we should be fine with going back now.”

Exiting the portal to level two, the sight before me made me widen my eyes in shock. This was a lot worse than I had imagined it would be. I only took a step to the side so Mira could see the same thing I was looking at.

A sphere of the dungeon was simply missing. This part of the dungeon looks like it was made of stone and polished to a shine. If I squinted my eyes, I could almost pretend it was part of the dungeon design.

Before our eyes, the dungeon started repairing itself. Liquid rock seeped from the edges of the missing stone and solidified in a new tunnel. I couldn't tell anymore where the missing sphere had been.

“So that's not something I expect anyone has seen often…”

“Don't you just take me to the nicest places? Come on, beakface, I want to reach level ten.”

I don't know if the man's actions had scared away the critters of the dungeon, but it took two left turns before any sort of resistance was mounted. Even then, the resistance was lackluster. Toads, in no more than groups of five, were mostly only one or two at a time. Since the tongue was the trophy, I got the distinct pleasure of being the trophy remover for level two.

To my annoyance, we didn't find any hidden stashes or find out where the crazy man had been camping. The guy couldn't have been there long without any supplies.

I also learned that my skill with throwing weapons was lacking, to say the least. I somehow managed to hit a frog with one of my knives, but the throwing spikes were at zero out of eight and that wasn't because the frogs were particularly active or seemed to understand what my throwing something meant. No, to Mira's delight, I just plain sucked at it.

I could see my immediate future contained a whole lot of training.

All in all, we have 28 left frog legs, and if we were going to sleep at the camp tonight, we would need to speed through the remaining levels between us and level ten.

Not that we expected much of a challenge or loot until at least level twenty or maybe even as deep as thirty.

Level three had the dungeon walls look like a red brick cellar again. The enemies at this dungeon level, if they could be called enemies, were dogs. The creatures didn't reach up to my knee.

What seemed like a preferred method of interaction was building up speed and running past you while almost touching your leg, the bark a happy bark as they were gone again down the tunnel.

That the level was shaped as long stretches of straight lines followed by abrupt changes in direction made it almost impossible for normal people to pick up the sound of a dog's paws scraping against the ground as it sped up. Over the regular noise, a group of armored people made while walking that was one difficult tell to pick up,

I found that I could, but after watching one of them running towards us, tongue out in a cute grin and tail wagging furiously, I just couldn't bring myself to try and hurt it. That Mira yelled her lungs out after each passing may have been a factor in my decision.

None of my memories showed me having a dog. I really, really wanted to get one or ten of them.

When we finally made it to the exit of the level, Mira was painting heavily and seemed a bit wild around the eyes. Asking her if she wanted to take a break only produced a death stare.

Just as I was about to exit the level, a dog barked at us from the end of the tunnel while jumping from side to side as its tail was trying to chop down a tree. A moment later, it was gone around the corner.

Level four was another scratch of slightly turning tunnels without anything standing out. If it wasn't for the cute bats, I thought the dungeon planned to lull us to sleep.

After a few close calls, we learned that the bats were terrified of my hat or the feather in it, but they loved trying to snack on Mira, so she ended up armoring up the helmet and all, and as bats attacked at regular intervals, I would have to stab or slice them off her head.

To say the third and fourth levels were taking their toll on Mira's mental stability may have been a slight understatement. That I kept asking her if she really needed that eye before stabbing the bats clambering to her head may have been making the situation slightly worse. I'm not a mind healer, though, so the verdict is still out on that one.

The fifth level is different. A clearing, small enough that I easily spot the portal to level six on the other side.

In the middle of the clearing, there was a large pond surrounded by trees I had only seen when sailing past Bravell once when I was around five. They stood up like poles from the ground, strange feather-shaped branches sticking out of the top in every direction. I couldn't remember what the sailors called them.

They also claimed the sweetest fruit could be found at the top of those trees, but I couldn't see anything that looked like an apple or a pear growing from them. When we took to port, a council member brought us to a building that was almost as big as our summer home, where she said we could stay until our business with the council was concluded.

I never learned what business we were there to conduct with Bravell, but I did learn that the sweet fruit wasn't as sweet as the sailors claimed unless they dried them like raisins first. When we left, I threw a tantrum until a barrel of dried fruits was brought with us.

I ate so many over that summer that I grew sick more than once. Even now, just thinking about them makes me want to vomit.

Speeding up, I started walking faster, but Mira clearly had other ideas.

“Let's take a breather. Look at how nice it's here, and I'm bloody hungry.”

I didn't really disagree. It was nice. Even the lighting created by the dungeon seemed warmer than it had been in the rest of the dungeons. There was also the fact that I was constantly walking around with a gnawing hunger, and it was starting to affect my mood.

“Alright, but if you see one of those rocks in the water start moving, we leg it. They are much faster than they look on land, and don't try bathing unless you want to deprive Team Mira of Mira.”

“What are they?”

“I don't remember their name, but they look like big lizards twice as long as a grown man, and they have big mouths full of sharp teeth. I once saw one shoot out of the water and bite a slave in the middle of the chain gang. Before the slave guards could react, it had dragged all ten or so slaves into the river. The blue river turned red and brown as more of them came to feast. It was a really big one, but even the regular-sized ones can drag you under the water faster than you can think.”

Mira was switching between staring at the water and me.

“It's okay. We aren't that far from level ten. Let's go…I said, let's go, Alucard.”

Following Mira in a wide circle around the pond, it didn't take long to make it to the glowing portal on the other side of the room. We even managed to pick up quite a few flower pods that Mira could use by smearing a paste of it over an area so it would go numb for half an hour. It was apparently great to use when she needed to remove debris from a wound.

On level six, we once again found ourselves in long tunnels that were slightly curved, hampering the ability to view anything at a distance.

After a few minutes, we met the ultimate dungeon creature. Nothing really represented a dungeon delve like these, especially since they only seemed to appear in dungeons and couldn't survive outside of them. The familiar, strangely cute and diverse slime. The cleaning crew of the dungeons. They were one of the few monsters that regularly migrated between levels.

None but the most desperate Hunter would kill them. It was believed to bring bad luck or the dungeon's wrath down on the slayer. Sure, they paid a bit better than rat tails for big ones, but for the slime cores of fist-sized slimes like this, maybe a copper for thirty.

I may not be into the whole dungeon wrath and bad luck superstition, but I found there were lows that even I wouldn't sink to. I know. I'm as shocked as everyone else.

We took a moment to look at the yellow and blue slimes that seemed to have fun playing at who could bounce the furthest of the tunnel wall.

When we were within a few steps, they finally seemed to see or sense us and came bouncing over. The blue one chose to bounce off Mira's leg, while the yellow one was trying to do the same with mine.

When they were this small, they didn't produce an acid powerful enough to dissolve anything but skin, and that took some time, so I decided to pick the yellow one up and hold it in the crook of my left arm, where it promptly settled and started vibrating.

“Don't tell me you have fallen as low as slime-napping.”

“Not yet, but the day is young. Thought I would bring the little fellow along since they seldom travel only two at a time. The swarm should be somewhere nearby.”

Mira looked at me far too long for comfort before picking up the blue slime cradling it like a baby.

“Alright, maybe you should ask it to dissolve a bit of that beak of yours.”

“Harr harr, very funny. See if yours can't slim down those hips a bit. Seems to be growing each time I see you.”

“I hope you die poor.”

“Now that is taking things to another level.”

After another long walk, I noticed a little yellow growing agitated, but it didn't try to escape. The bugger was probably feasting on any ratling remains I hadn't been able to get off yet.

The dungeon suddenly opened into a room, and in the middle of it, a throng of tiny slimes was busy having a party on someone's remains, quite a few someones at that.

Yellow and blue seemed to have decided their servants had carried them enough because both bounced out of our grasps and towards the rest of the slimes.

Looking closer at a few of the half-melted bodies, I recognized a few of the clothes I saw. It was the Hunters group that had entered the dungeon right before us and by the number of bodies, possibly the one before that.

Turning to a slightly green-tinged Mira, I eloquently asked, “So…What now?”