Yoshi followed me through the ceiling, my backpack hanging from his back from the straps tied to his waist. Taming the beast really had been a good idea. Not having to carry all that loot was Very convenient.

Stepping out from the stairs I brandished my spear and fell into a fighting position, quickly looking around for any enemies but, this time, there wasn’t an ambush waiting for me, instead, I found two pallum adventurers giving me odd looks.

“Got ambushed when coming down to floor 6.” I tried to explain, my face flushed from embarrassment.

One of the pallum just shrugged and went back to harvesting a needle rabbit; the other actually snickered at me and continued to guard his friend.

From behind him on the wall, Yoshi hissed, causing the small adventurer to desperately jump away, his sword flashing into a block. Yoshi hissed again and then crawled back to the ceiling and towards me.

This time, it was the harvesting pallum who snickered, his scared friend just frowned. I stared at him and, eventually, he gave an exasperated sigh and nodded at me.

Unwilling to turn my back towards them, I took a side entrance and advanced through the seventh floor, Yoshi following me, but never escaping my sight.

I had started to like the little lizard, but I wasn’t stupid. It was carrying most of my loot and I really didn’t want to risk it attacking me or, worse, actually escape.

My spear pierced through the throat of a lone war shadow and struck the stone wall behind it, sending a jolt of pain through my hands as the shaft reverberated from the impact.

War shadow dead, I released my spear and shook both hands in the air, trying to get rid of the numbness, hitting stone with all my strength was far from a pleasant sensation.

Using a dagger, I dug out the Magic Stone and moved on, arriving in a large open room. Three killer ants immediately started coming for me and I dropped the spear, pulling out my hammer instead.

Yoshi jumped on top of the last one, his bulk, combined with all my lot, momentarily nailed the ant to the ground, allowing him to bite its head repeatedly, but without much success.

Left with only two ants, I rushed the first one and delivered a devastating overhead strike to its head. The ant tried to block with her mandibles, but I was faster, my hammer hitting its head and pulping it.

Shards of carapace flew everywhere as I jumped back and avoided an attack from the second one. Suddenly, I saw some purple dust falling around me, resting on top of my head and shoulders.

Breaking two of the ant’s legs, I took a chance to glance up and saw a large purple moth floating above me, poisonous dust falling from its wings.

Jumping back, I pulled out a throwing dagger and nailed the moth in the head. The monster was sent tumbling to fall on its side, its wings flapping uselessly, purple poison starting to accumulate around itself.

Dodging another bite, I smashed the ant’s thorax and, when it collapsed, finished it off by smashing its head.

To the side, Yoshi had actually managed to bite through the ant’s neck, separating its head from the rest of the body.

In a hurry, I was just about to rush his position and finish off the ant before it could signal for reinforcement when the lizard dug out the magic crystal and ate it, causing the ant to dissolve into black dust.

The purple moth had finally died, its wings stopped moving. Standing in front of the creature, I considered my options.

Should I harvest its magic crystal myself? From what I understood, its poison would continue to be active days after it was dead, and there was a lot of poison there.

Grabbing an empty bottle from Yoshi’s pack, I used a dagger to move the dust, filling the bottle completely before harvesting the core.

The little poison that had gotten into my shoulders didn’t seem to have succeeded in poisoning me, so I moved on, killing nine other killer ants, four Frog Shooters, two war shadows and two purple moths before meeting a new monster.

It was a rabbit, a horned rabbit… Well, they were called needle rabbits, but that’s semantics. It was also incredibly cute.

Standing there, with my spear pointed at the little critter. I couldn’t bring myself to kill the thing. It didn’t help that the rabbit wasn’t attacking, just standing there, its little pink nose sniffing at me.

Suddenly, Yoshi fell on top of it, swallowing its body whole and making the point moot. Well, that just happened.

Shaking my head, I moved on and, an hour and a half later, found the entrance to the eighth floor. Looking at the stairs going down, I frowned.

I had found the entrance far too soon, more than that, there had been even fewer monsters here than on the sixth floor.

From everything I had read, the amount of monsters only increased with every floor, yet I had only fought a few groups here… perhaps there were more adventurers hunting on this floor, but I had only seen the two pallum at the entrance. How strange.

Still, needle rabbits were even weaker than goblins and kobolds and, while Purple moths were annoying, keeping their distance and trying to poison the air, they were also extremely fragile, dying to a single thrown dagger.

Even Yoshi could kill them easily.

It made for a more diverse amount of monsters, requiring different approaches to defeat, but they were actually easier to kill.

Looking at Yoshi’s pack, I thought about what to do. Hunting at this floor wasn’t going to increase my loot all that much, and I still had about half a day to stay here.

Also, I know that there were more powerful monsters on the eighth floor, but I was pretty sure I could handle slightly stronger goblins and kobolds. Hell, even stronger war shadows wouldn’t be a problem with my illusions.

Carefully, I stepped down to the eighth floor, my spear ready to attack or defend in a second. A white blur flew towards my face and I waved my weapon, hitting it with the spear shaft and smashing it against the wall.

The needle rabbit fell to the ground, wounded and dazed but, surprisingly, still alive, before I could finish it off, Yoshi ate it.

With a frown, I used the butt of my spear to boink the lizard in the head, damn greedy bastard. It seems to have developed a taste for rabbit, immediately attacking any that appeared and swallowing them whole.

In truth, I didn’t really mind all that much, it was just a pity that I wasn’t getting any loot drops from the things.

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Looking around myself, I took note of the differences on this floor.

The ceiling was nearly twice as high, with stalactites hanging down, covered with yellow rocks that glowed like a sun and the brown walls were covered with a thick layer of moss. The floor was covered with short grass and surprisingly even, the only difference were some large rocks sprouting from time to time.

The first room was also wide, almost three times the size of the ones above, with almost a dozen openings leading to different hallways. All in all, it gave me a completely different feeling from the floors above.

Up to the seventh floor, I could see pairs of adventurers working well together, but anything more would only get in each other’s way. Here, a party of five could easily hunt together without much problem.

It probably meant that there were also larger groups of monsters, I’d have to be careful and test out just how much stronger the monsters were here, but I didn’t foresee any problems, not unless the monsters more than doubled in power.

Looking around the large room, I quickly located a group of Kobolds that hadn’t seen me yet. They were slightly taller and more muscular than their higher floor counterparts, but not by that much, there were also eleven of them, with two purple moths flying close by.

Right now, I just wanted to test how much stronger they were, so there was no need to engage so many of them at once.

Looking at one of the kobolds, I snared it into an illusion, making it see two of his companions as adventurers instead of monsters.

The creature snapped to attention instantly, releasing a low growl that raised the hackles on the entire pack, lowering his hand to the floor. The kobold actually drew a large stone club from the dungeon and rushed one of his companions, smashing its head in a single blow.

Quickly, I caught a second Kobold in an illusion and the pack descended into infighting. Six of the creatures died before one of them even located me.

Pulling out a dagger, I threw it at the frontline fighter, but it managed to dodge aside, causing me to raise an eyebrow at its speed. Still, I managed to kill it with a single lunge of my spear.

Of the last four, one was already wounded. I engaged the three healthy ones, blocking a blow of their landform weapon with the spear shaft before stomping on his chest and slashing at a second.

Each kobold was nearly as strong as me, but the most telling was their skill and speed. Instead of continuing to rush me, the creatures started using pack tactics, attacking and retreating while trying to encircle me. Their reaction speed was enough that I couldn’t easily kill one without opening myself for an attack from another.

Still, the fight was fast, barely thirty seconds later and the small wounds I was leaving them started to accumulate, they also started tiring.

Having gotten what I wanted, I decided to increase my speed. From my right, a kobold tried to rush me and I presented the tip of my spear, causing him to stop. A second kobold took the chance to attack my spear shaft with his stone club, trying to break it.

Acting deftly, I slid my spear back, causing the kobold to hit air before stabbing twice, piercing its neck and belly, then rushing a second, slashing in a wide arc. The kobold actually ducked under the slash, but I continued the movement, hitting his head with the back of the spear and breaking his skull.

Behind me, Yoshi tried to fall from the ceiling, but he actually missed his prey, dropping heavily to the ground behind the Kobold and releasing a hiss of pain.

Both remaining Kobolds whirled around on the dungeon lizard and I took the chance to stab one on the back while it was distracted. Alone, the last Kobold was quickly rushed by Yoshi. After consuming so many magic crystals, the lizard was actually quite a bit stronger, bulling it over and biting off its face with no trouble.

Harvesting their cores, I sat down on top of a rock and observed the purple moths, despite the fight, I hadn’t aggroed them.

Pulling some supplies from Yoshi’s back, I drank some water and ate a little, replenishing my strength for the fight on this floor. The monsters were stronger here, in nearly all aspects really, but they weren’t beyond me.

After my spars with Tiona, I was pretty sure I could have taken all eleven of them, even without my illusions. If the war shadows were only this much stronger, they too wouldn’t be a problem.

At my side, Yoshi kept staring at the ceiling and hissing, causing me to laugh at the poor lizard. With the ceiling doubling in height, the beast was having trouble aiming, and its fall also caused it some pain.

Also, the room was so big that Yoshi couldn’t count on climbing a wall every time, making his preferred tactic very… inconvenient and situational.

Laughing, I scratched the ugly little thing’s jaw, causing its back leg to hit the ground repeatedly.

Squinting my eyes, I thought I saw someone peeking from one of the many hallways leaving this room. Still, even with the sharingan, it was far enough away, and had been fast enough, that I wasn’t really sure.

Finishing my mean, I killed both purple months and a trio of needle rabbits that had spawned before turning towards a different hallway. On the opposite side of where I thought I had seen something.

.

.

.

With a shout, I drove the spike on my hammer right through the leg of the war shadow, then used my shoulder to push it away and threw three daggers at its head, two of them bounced off its eye, but the third lodged right below it, where its mouth should have been.

“HA!” I screamed, dodging a claw strike. Twisting my body around, I stomped on the dagger, driving it all the way through the beast’s head, the war shadow stumbled back two steps, then fell down to the ground, dead.

Laughing like a maniac, I pulled my spear from a second war shadow and approached a still living goblin; it was crawling in the ground, using its arms to drag itself towards me while its hips and legs were destroyed.

The creature tried to pounce on me but, with only its arms working, I managed to intercept it midair and pin it to the ground before stabbing it on the back of the neck.

I had been fighting a pack of the little bastards when the two war shadows approached. On this floor, they were actually more challenging than before but, tricking some of the goblins into fighting them, they had been defeated without causing me a lot of damage.

The amount of monsters on the eighth floor had drastically increased, and I was forced to kill them fairly fast lest they attract even more. It made for far more satisfying fights, where even my illusions were necessary, not just convenient.

The two war shadows I just faced were faster, stronger and had actual martial arts skills, coupled with my inability to snare them with strong illusions, the fight actually left me very tired.

Using the wall to support my body, I let Yoshi consume one of their cores and smiled when I saw another finger blade on its ashes.

Opening the pouch at my waist, I pulled out a stamina potion and drank it in a single gulp, feeling the liquid going down my throat and reinvigorating my entire body. Giving it a minute or so, I also drank a health potion, watching as the scratches along my arms and legs healed.

Nothing on this floor had been able to truly hurt me, but the small scraps had been accumulating for a while now, and I still had a lot of potions left.

Five minutes later, I felt well enough to continue advancing, leaving the hallway and entering a new room, the largest I had seen on this floor, and I had seen a lot.

On this floor, the majority of the space was composed of large rooms, there were still hallways connecting them, but they were wider and shorter than on the previous floors, and there were rarely any monsters wandering them.

Entering the room, I killed nine killer ants and a purple month, then I saw an adventurer party of three fighting in the center of the room, facing against a pack of thirteen kobolds and four frog shooters.

Glancing at them for a few seconds, I decided they didn’t need any help, their tank was well equipped and skilled, and the other two were strong fighters.

Keeping them in my view, I walked along the wall towards a new exit. Just as I was about to enter the new hallway, I heard the sound of running feet coming from inside and frowned.

With a sigh, I turned towards a new hallway and saw nine killer ants pouring out of the entrance. I also saw a fucking ant head laying there on the ground.

Immediately snapping to full attention, I turned back towards the exit I had heard running, concentrating, I started to hear the faint sound of a stampede coming behind the human steps.

“FUCK!” Without wasting time, I turned towards the hallway I had come from and started running, Yoshi following close behind. Turning towards the still fighting party, I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Monster train! Monster Train!”

The party had managed to kill most of its enemies while I was circling them, and one of the archers had enough free space to glance at me. His eyes widened as he saw me desperately run towards the exit.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw a man wearing the same costume as the one who had spoken to me on the previous floors, the same white robe and cowl, with a piece of cloth covering his face.

His eyes met mine and I saw the determination there, and the aggression. I still wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t see the damn motherfucker dropping an ant head on the floor and increasing his speed far beyond what it had been before.

What the fuck? WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK!? This utter asshole was drawing a monster train after me on fucking purpose!

My mangekyou immediately activated, and I met his goddamned eyes, immediately casting the strongest visual illusion I could. The motherfucker stumbled, falling to the ground as I made him lose his balance, rolling with his momentum.

Still, he was a strong adventurer and managed to roll to his feet in less than two seconds. Taking stock of his position, he ignored me and ran… straight towards the hallway he had just come from.

Not only had I messed with his balance, I had also inverted his sense of direction, the illusion had been messy and easily discoverable but, with the adrenaline going through his body, he hadn’t discovered it.

Still, I continued running. A few seconds later, I heard screaming coming from behind me, then a very loud explosion, glancing back once again; I saw a few killer ants pouring out of the exit, followed closely by a cloud of dust.

What I had just done hit me hard, but I swallowed the bile that rose into my mouth and continued running. Behind me, the party had finally realized how serious the situation was and started running after me.

I entered into the hallway running like mad, my feet stomping on the floor with surprising strength and digging tufts of grass out with every step. Yoshi started falling behind, but I couldn’t care about the loot, much less the monster right now.

Only a few seconds later, I heard the party entering the hallway, followed closely behind by the surviving Kobolds.

I took the latest turn on the hallway at breakneck speeds, smashing my shoulder on the wall before I could stop myself and seeing the exit only a hundred meters in front of me.

It wouldn’t make me safe, but it was a start.

Exiting the tunnel I froze. In front of me, all around the room, I saw dozens of monsters coming from each entrance. Killer ants, war shadows, goblins, kobolds and everything else were pouring into the room like an unstoppable torrent.

Yoshi ran between my legs and stopped in front of me, hissing. He was followed closely behind by the three adventurers. The tank stopped slightly ahead of me, falling to his knees.

My mangekyou eyes looked at the entire room, trying to find a safe path, or at least one without too many monsters. Instead, I saw several white robed individuals looking at me on a path at the other side of the room.

Before I could do anything, they turned their backs to me and walked further into the only empty hallway, disappearing into the corner. Behind them, the entrance to the hallway exploded with devastating speed, collapsing the ceiling in front of it and blocking the path so nobody could follow.

“Motherfuckers.” The archer woman said from right beside me, her hands trembling at her side.

The explosion only served to drive the monsters further into a frenzy and, only a second later, what were dozens became hundreds, all of them converging upon us.

Looking at everything around me, I felt the overwhelming sense of panic starting to close in. “Well… fuck.”