The Beast’s needle-like teeth sank into my flesh with incredible ease, biting off my entire arm and swallowing it in a single gulp.

With its sharp claws it grabbed me by the shoulder and lifted my body up until I could stare into its glowing red eyes

“Persistent little shit aren’t you?” The beast told me as its claws ripped out my belly, spilling blood all over its shirt.

In front of my eyes the creature shifted, it’s snout retreated while its claws turned into daggers until all that was left was a large man holding me by the throat and frowning.

With a roar of rage the man drove his dagger under my neck once, twice, three times, then he smashed me against the ground and continued to stab me over and over and over…

I woke up with a scream, my face was covered in sweat and I was completely out of breath, for a few seconds I searched aimlessly for my phone to see what time it was until I remembered just where I was and sighed.

At least I HAD woken up.

Looking around I noticed I was resting on the floor of a tent. If I squinted my one good eye I could see Rivira from the gap on my tent’s opening, letting myself relax once again. I dropped my head back on the pillow and wiped my face with the covers.

Taking stock of my situation I saw that my wounded arm was in a cast, I no longer had a crossbow bolt sticking out of me and my wounded eye was properly bandaged, even better my headache was gone and I felt… good, I was also incredibly hungry.

Not perfect by all means, my arm was still aching and my muscles were all protesting any movement I made but I was well rested and not in immense pain so it was a huge improvement.

When no one came to check on my scream I sighed, my gear laid beside me but there was nothing else on my tent and I desperately needed a little food.

I managed to push myself into a sitting position, then grabbed the pole in the middle of the tent and pulled myself back on my feet, I didn’t even lose balance.

Stretching my back I briefly considered looking for a cane but decided I didn’t need it and walked out of the tent on my own two feet. My first steps were careful and uncertain but I quickly gained confidence and was walking normally by the time I stepped outside.

It was still night at the 18 floor of the dungeon but some of the white crystals in the ceiling were already starting to shine down on the city, giving me a great view of the giant tree in the middle of the floor.

I was just starting to smile while staring when the desperate face of the man flashed into my mind, filled with fear and pain as I stabbed his neck with my dagger until there wasn’t even blood anymore.

Falling to my knees I started dry heaving while trying to banish the image from my mind.

In my eyes I could see every drop of sweat on the man’s face, every twitch of his flesh as my dagger cut it, the way the blood sprayed out from his veins, my sharingan had recorded it all and made absolutely sure I’d never be able to forget it.

I must have stood there for an entire minute before I was able to think straight, the panic and desperation of the memory finally left me and I started to really think about my actions at that time.

I had never killed a man, no I had never even thought I’d have to kill a man before coming here. It was both harder and easier than I had thought.

Harder in the sense that I didn’t want to do it, my body itself had fought against the action pulling my blows, making them weaker than I knew was needed, slower too, until I was so desperate to survive that I acted on pure instinct.

It was also easier, my dagger punched through his skin with barely any resistance, humans were far more fragile than even the weakest of monsters, their blood flowed freely from any wound, pumped out by their own beating heart.

Regaining control of my body I spit to the side and wiped my mouth with my arm, slowly my breathing started to return to normal and I got up before spitting once more to get rid of the foul taste in my mouth.

I still felt a little guilty about the act but it had been a matter of life and death and, surprisingly, I knew I’d do it all over again if it was needed, I wasn’t about to become a mass murder or something but, if pressed, I knew I wouldn’t hesitate again.

I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, I had been raised religiously and, while I had distanced myself from any church after growing up and didn’t exactly follow the bible, I had taken the ‘thou shall not kill’ part of it seriously.

“Hey, you’re up” came Mord’s voice from inside another tent, pushing my musings to the side I turned towards him.

Mord wasn’t looking great, his shoulder was still wrapped in bandages and he looked white as a ghost but he was walking around normally and seemed to be in high spirits.

“Morning, you’re looking happy” I grumbled while grabbing at the sling on my arm.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He said and patted me on the back with far less strength than usual “We survived newbie, not only that but we also made a killing, what more do you want from a delve?”

I suppose he was right, pinching the bridge of my nose I sighed “Alright what now?”

“Now we make our way to the medical tent, Zenobi said he wanted to see you again after you awoke” he said and turned me towards a small tent with a red cross in front of it “the kid’s a hard worker so he should be awake already”

“What about you?” I asked, looking him over he didn’t look all that well.

“Ahh, he already looked me over, turns out I’m fine but healing potions aren’t the best at treating blood loss” Mord coughed into his hand “You on the other hand, you’ve been asleep for three days now, we were starting to get worried”

“What?” I asked dumbfounded at the same time as I felt my stomach grumble loudly “Shit, you think I can eat something first?”

“You know what, I’ll leave you with the guy and grab some breakfast for us alright?” Mord smiled as he guided me towards the medic “I heard you saved me… thanks I owe you one”

“I didn’t really think about it” I confessed embarrassed, I hadn’t fought the Vouivre to save Mord, or at least not only to save Mord.

Even now I didn’t understand why I had charged the monster like that but at least I knew being a hero was only a very small part of it, I barely knew Mord and, while I liked him, we weren’t even friends yet, not really.

Pushing the tent flaps aside, Mord poked his head inside and shouted “Hey Zenobi, the newbie finally woke up!”

“It’s Modaka, Mo. Da. Ka.” A frustrated male voice said from inside the tent. “Get him inside them”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Being pushed inside the small tent I saw a short, young guy sitting behind a desk, his chest was mostly bare with only a strap over one shoulder holding his shorts up, he had huge bags under his eyes and seemed incredibly tired.

“Good luck, I’ll find something for us to eat” Mord closed the flap and shouted, already walking away.

“So you’re the medic?” I asked while lifting an eyebrow.

“Not really” Modaka sighed while scratching at his eyes with both hands “but I’m the closest thing to one down here, of course they made it my job”

Getting up from behind the desk the guy took out my bandages and looked inside my eyes before checking my arm.

“As I said I’m not really a healer but your companions wanted me to have a look at you anyway” He told me as he handed me a green potion to drink “you’re gonna have to check with someone up there in Orario but you seem ok, I’d say you were just suffering from overusing your ”

“I see” I drank the potion, a warm feeling filling my throat before both my muscles and my wounded arm stopped aching, scratching at an itch inside my cast. I frowned “why am I in a cast? Shouldn't potions have dealt with it.”

“Sure, if you were willing to pay 120 thousand valis” he told me while sitting back down “it’s cheaper to just put it in a cast and drink a common potion a day, should take about two weeks to completely heal”

It made sense, in the show any potion used had healed just about everything and yet, potion tiers were still mentioned, there were still elixirs worth millions and other medicines and treatments.

“Thanks Modaka” I said when it became clear the man couldn’t do all that much, three days without eating had left me ravenous and I was eager to see if Mord had found some food.

“What did you just call me?” he asked, almost jumping out of his chair, his eyes shining like stars.

“Ah, Modaka?” I said while taking a few steps back, the guy looked like he wanted to jump me and I had no desire to feel his bare chest against me.

“Thank you! Thank you!” he buried his face against an arm and actually started crying “You don’t know how much this means to me!”

“Riiiight, you sure you don’t need to rest or something?” I suggested, the guy looked exhausted and was clearly having some kind of mental breakdown.

“No, no, I need to finish this paperwork for the monsterphilia but thanks for asking” I gave him a nod and hurried out of the tent to search for some food “ugh, why can’t Farna-sama do those things, it’s always me”

Back outside I didn’t see Mord anywhere, my stomach was rumbling again so I started walking towards the city, walking through the camp I saw drawings of an elephant mask everywhere.

On the patch to Rivira was a clearing without any tents, instead there were dozens of steel cages filled with monsters and guarded by adventurers in similar gear to Modaka.

Looking at them I recognized a cage with four lizardmen and another with a mad beetle but there were also small green humanoids that were probably goblins, metal rabbits, harpies and even a huge cage with a giant green snake curled up inside it.

Passing the cages several of the guards gave me suspicious stares but I just nodded at them and moved on, too hungry to even watch the beasts.

I caught Mord just as he was leaving the Inn, he waved me over and I attacked the bag he was holding devouring everything without even looking while shoving him back inside, there was no way a single bag would be enough.

An hour and almost six hundred valis later I pushed my chair back finally satisfied, Scott and Guile had turned up for breakfast earlier and thanked me for the help with the Vouivre but had already left to pack up their things.

Apparently the Ganesha familia had killed the Goliath yesterday while I was still asleep and the party had managed to convince the familia to hire them for help leaving the dungeon.

Usually Ganesha’s adventurers were more than enough for middle and upper floors but, with almost a hundred monsters being carried in cages, they needed all the help they could get and Mord’s party were mostly competent even wounded as they were.

Good thing I woke up when I did or they’d have to pay for someone to carry me up.

“Damn just where did you put it all”

“Shut up, it’s been three days alright I was hungry” I glared at him even as I tried to adjust my pants so they weren’t so tight.

“Anyway that’s about it, Dorlia is probably gonna want to meet with you before they depart but we should be back in Orario a little after midnight”

“Good, I think I need some time to rest and recover before I come back here” I told him, the dungeon was beautiful and all but I needed some time to deal with everything.

“Don’t we all? At least you’ll have you’ll part of the lot” Mord grumbled angrily before draining the rest of his beer and slamming the mug down, frustrated he let his head bang against the table “Fucking asshole thieves”

“What do you mean?”

“Even with all three of our savings I don’t think we have enough to fix Scott’s arm” He confessed with a sigh while waving the bartender for another refill.

“Can’t you guys reattach his arm somehow? I though that’s why we were carrying that elf’s legs with us”

“Well we managed to recover his arm but, with the Goliath still up and Rivira without supplies there wasn’t any potion or healer strong enough down here and it’s too late now” pushing himself back into a sitting position Mord scratched at his eyes “Getting something to restore the limb after so long would cost us more than we have ever made but we can probably get him a prosthetic if we take a loan”

“Shit” Looking at my immobilized arm I thought about my own missing fingers and grimaced. It seems I’m not getting those back anytime soon “What happened with those bastards anyway, did we get them all?”

“The elf got their leader and one of the snipers with her magic weapon and Scott managed to kill the other fighter but at least one of them escaped” he confessed “Ramilia was sure she had hit one more guy with her last thunderbolt but the weapon was already crumbling and we never found a body”

I closing my eyes I had to squeeze the edge of the table to keep my hand from trembling, one of the guys who tried to kill me was still alive, a thief and murderer with reason to take revenge on me was still out there.

“Goddamn poachers, with how many wounded we had we couldn’t even risk bringing one of their bodies to find out from which familia they belonged to”

“There’s nothing we can do?”

“Well if I recognize the guy in the street I’ll certainly petition Ogma to deal with him but, those things happen in the dungeon” finally getting his refill he looked down at his beer for a second before giving a bitter smile “At least Freya, Ganesha and Loki manage to keep things mostly civil in the surface but down here? All that matters is strength”

I gritted my teeth in a sudden bout of impotent anger, it’s not that I wanted everyone death for daring to attack me but, the fact that they could just attack someone without provocation and escape without repercussion left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Don’t worry about it newbie, get your share of the money, have some fun, life’s too short to focus on every shitty thing that happens” pushing his chair back Mord grabbed his full mug and stretched his back “You know what, I’ll even bring you to the entertainment district after you take off that cast, a level one fighting a Vouivre in melee range and surviving? The amazons are gonna love you there”

Can’t really say I was against that, I wonder what kind of entertainment a fantasy world would have.

“Well, I have to finish packing my things, I’ll meet you in two hours at the entrance to the 17 floor alright?”

I waved him away and finished my own beer, the good kind now that Rivira could resupply from Orario “Hey Villy, is my room still free?”

The cat eared innkeeper looked my way while cleaning a table and nodded “Yeah, with the Goliath down and one of the big familia’s camping outside very few people stay here. Why, want to rent it again?”

“Not really but, can I use it for an hour or two?”

“You know what, sure” he told me and was about to continue with his work before he thought of something “but no funny business you hear me! No leaving suspicious stains all over my room, if I have to clean it after you left I’m blacklisting you”

Ugh, now I’m gonna keep imagining white stains everywhere.

Entering the room I found the mirror right where I had left it, closing the door I sat on the bed and lifted my shirt up, it was awkward with my cast but I eventually managed to expose my back and smear a drop of blood on it.

Roland Synclair – level 1

Strength – I - 21

Endurance – I - 45

Dexterity – I - 22

Agility – I - 19

Magic – H - 152

Skills:

- Chosen of an Outer God.

- Mangekyou Sharingan (Shisui).

I felt a warm sensation fill my body as my falna was updated, every attribute had a significant improvement and magic had almost tripled after using my eyes so much.

It wasn’t really worth the loss of a kotoamatsukami but at least it took a little bit of the sting off.

With the increased attributes I felt even better, the soreness of my body was almost entirely gone and I felt strong despite having an arm out of commission, no wonder adventurers continued to risk their lives in the dungeon, the feeling of improvement was almost addicting.

Hiding my falna again I took a deep breath and just tried to relax, there was nothing trying to kill me right now, no danger I had to watch out for, no pressure.

I could almost feel the tension leaving my body but, before I knew it, the face of the man I killed flashed in my mind, as detailed as the moment I had killed him, I remembered every pore on his skin, every drop of…

Jumping out of the bed I shook my head and made myself busy creating illusions.

Thinking about my experiences it was clear that every illusion I had created took time and effort to make but it also got better, more detailed and realistic after each use.

I suppose the ninja in Naruto had generations to optimize their genjutsu, to make them as complicated as they could and realistic enough to even fool other ninja but I was starting from scratch.

It was the difference between doing complex calculations from scratch and having a known formula for it, the same result could be achieved but the first would take far more time and effort while being far more likely to make mistakes.

At least the sharingan helped me tremendously when casting visual illusions.

I started simple, the first illusion in my repertoire would be something I wouldn’t even need to think about, I’d simply fill my enemy’s vision with darkness, robbing them of sight.

Monsters could make do with other senses and adventurers would quickly realize something was wrong and break the illusion but it would earn me a few precious seconds of confusion until I could create a better illusion, probably more than enough to finish an opponent.

The second illusion served the same goal, I concentrated on the pain I had felt in my fights and made it into an illusion that would last a few seconds, if the Almiraj I had killed was any indication it would be very effective against monsters and I was sure any adventurer would at least flinch away.

Thinking about it, do monsters even feel pain like humans or was it just muted, every monster the party had fought on the 19 floor had continued fighting while ignoring any wound they received but the Almiraj had became almost incapacitated when I made it feel pain with an illusion, interesting.

Both illusions didn’t really require much preparation or complexity but it was good to have then ready, to think about them as if they were skills I had access to instead of having to come up with solutions on the spot, I’d have to train until casting them became an instinctual response in a fight but, for now, they were good enough.

Then I started building my first complicated illusion, using everything I had seen I started making something able to fool even an experienced adventurer, slowly the image started to form in my mind.

The illusion would start very simple. I used the mirror to look at myself from every angle until I could replicate the look of my own body perfectly, I included everything I could think of, the sound, the smell, the wind, I put everything I could into a couple of seconds of action.

When cast my enemy wouldn’t lose sight of me or anything, instead the illusion would start at the exact same spot as me and act exactly as I would, it would be capable of dodging a single attack before striking with an overhead blow with my sword.

My own body would be hidden from the targets sight so I could act freely while he dealt with my illusion, hopefully whatever I was fighting would try to block my overhead strike and open up its chest for a quick kill but I could also use the time to escape, buy myself some space or just keep an enemy occupied for a few seconds.

It took me a little over an hour to make the skill and keep it in my memory, not bad for something I was doing for the first time and, coupled with the mangekyou the illusion is good enough to fool even a level 3 adventurer for a few seconds.

At least I think it is, hopefully, I’d have to test it out.

I was also pretty sure I could use the experience I gained to create something similar in about half the time now.

Unwilling to risk missing the meeting I grabbed my things and left the inn with a wave towards Villy, it was finally time to enter Orario